Tourism | Chinese visitors flock to Japan by the millions

A relaxation on visa rules for mainland Chinese, coupled with a decline in the value of the Japanese Yen (JPY), has seen Chinese tourists flocking to Japan by the millions, claims a new report by broadcaster CNBC.
Japan is currently enjoying an extended period of tourism popularity in East Asia. The record-breaking figures of the last three years show the country’s tourism sector going from strength to strength – and 2015 is set to be a record high.
The number of tourists to Japan in the first 11 months of 2015 surpassed 18 million, edging in on Tokyo’s target of 20 million visitors per year. Compared with the first 11 months of 2014, this year’s figure represents an almost 50-percent increase year-on-year, according to CNBC.
According to statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization, around a quarter of inbound tourists to Japan are from China. This year’s rise in the number of visitors was propelled by the mainland, which saw its Japan-bound tourists leap 110 percent year-on-year, reaching 4.6 million for the first 11 months of 2015.
Known for their insatiable appetite for shopping, Chinese tourists have inspired the buzzword “bakugai” or “explosive buying” in Japan. The bakugai effect is multiplied during peak seasons like the Golden Week in October, when it was estimated that this year around 400,000 Chinese tourists spent USD830 million in just seven days.
The foreign inflows have been warmly received by a Japanese government that has inherited a legacy of decades-long sub-par economic performance. One of Tokyo’s most recent policies to promote the tourism sector involved the relaxation of its visa requirements for travelers from China, which came into effect at the start of 2015.
The government, which had set the target for the number of visitors to the island nation at 20 million, is now planning to revise the figure to 30 million by 2020, according to local media.
The consistent downward slide of the JPY against the USD since late 2012 has made the traditionally expensive Tokyo more affordable to its neighbors. The USD/JPY conversion rate stands at 121.39 at the time of print, up from around 84 in December 2012, marking a significant increase in the buying power of visitors.
With travel and shopping more affordable, Japan has established itself as a rival destination for mainland groups who have traditionally headed for Hong Kong and Macau.
A series of other airports opening or expanding their services to East Asian airlines have also enabled carriers to set up shop in Japan and low cost carriers (LCCs) to enter the market offering competitively priced flights.
“It’s not just Tokyo… it’s also some of the smaller destinations in Japan like Kyushu, Fukuoka… A lot of this is also driven by the LCCs. So the more the LCCs fly to the smaller destinations, that just opens up the market,” Asia-Pacific vice-president of Hotels.com, Abhiram Chowdhry, told CNBC.
Data from New Kansai International Airport Company’s webpage suggested that the 2007 addition of a second runway at Kansai International Airport had boosted international flights to that destination by 29 percent as of last year.Staff reporter