Japan posted record-breaking tourist figures in 2024

There was a reason it felt like your social feeds and office-team chats were flooded with people sharing pictures, videos, and anecdotes from their two-week sojourns to Japan last year: the country welcomed a record 36.87 million visitors in 2024, up more than 15% from the previous prepandemic high in 2019. 

Though the figure, posted by the nation’s tourism body earlier this week, is provisional, it would put the national government ahead of its goal to welcome 60 million overseas visitors a year by 2030 — a target set in 2016, well before the pandemic scuppered the nation’s tourism industry as it did everywhere else. While elected officials will be happy with the new record, locals affected by issues of overcrowding on public transport and packed restaurants are less enthused about the 2024 high.

See the full article here.