TOKYO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Japan saw the number of foreign visitors in 2020 plummet 87.1 percent from a year earlier, marking the largest decline in 56 years when comparable data keeping began, the Japan Tourism Agency said Wednesday.
According to the agency, in 2020 the number of foreign visitors tumbled to 4.12 million, well below the government's lofty target of attracting 40 million foreign visitors in 2020 when Tokyo was originally scheduled to host the since postponed Olympic and Paralympic Games.
As the government tightened entry restrictions in a bid to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in May last year, the number of foreign visitors here slumped 99.9 percent from a year earlier to just 1,663 travelers.
Foreign visitors in December last year climbed to almost 59,000 although this was still 97.7 percent less than those who visited at the same time a year earlier and marked the 15th successive month of decline, the agency's data showed.
Japan welcomed the largest number of visitors from China last year.
The agency's data also showed that in 2020 the number of Japanese people traveling overseas dropped 84.2 percent from a year earlier to 3.17 million, marking the largest drop since comparable data became available.
Adding to Japan's already battered tourism industry, the government here in late December suspended entries into the country of non-resident foreign nationals arriving from the majority of the world in a bid to prevent the spread of a new, highly transmissible coronavirus strain.
As infections continued to surge, a state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures was declared by the government here on Jan. 7, which was expanded almost a week later to cover 11 prefectures nationwide, including Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto and Aichi prefectures, further hammering the domestic tourism industry. Enditem