Japan and Foreign Visitors in Oct: Updated Nov. 18, 2025.

Japan sees 3.9 mil. foreign visitors in Oct., second highest monthly figure

Article source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251118/p2g/00m/0li/044000c

Ideas

Foreign visitors to Japan continue to increase but at the same time, there are those who think there might be too many foreigners coming to Japan as they think there is an over-tourism problem now.

Over-tourism might only be in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka as maybe the number of foreign tourist in other areas of Japan are not overpopulated yet, and probably never will be.

The popular areas of Tokyo and Kyoto will always be overpopulate while the other areas of Japan might remain as normal for the number tourists that visit there.

Unfortunately, or maybe as needed, there is talk of a tourism tax for Tokyo and Kyoto, which are the two most popular places for foreign tourists in Japan.

For many years, South Korea had a negative view of Japan because of past occupations, but it seems citizens in South Korea, or most of them don't think about the past too much as they just want to travel and experience other places.

At the same time, if you have lived in South Korea, as I have, South Korea only has a few long vacations periods so they tend to take short trips such as going to Japan which can be done on a short trip on the weekend or adding an extra day.

I used to get trips to Japan very easily and quickly but now because of the increased demand, as the last few years, such after the pandemic, it has been almost impossible to book a trip to Japan as demand has increased to the point that airline prices seemed out of control and the number of flights or seats available seemed not-existent.

Chinese citizens used to be the largest group that went to Japan, but for whatever reason, such as not enough flight available since the pandemic South Korean tourists have become the largest foreign group to go to Japan.

It seems that Japan keeps taking one step forward with relations with China and two steps back as they are always saying or doing something to cause friction between the two countries.

But it will be interesting to see if Chinese tourists continue to go to Japan with high numbers or will they follow what the Chinese govt. says and stay away from Japan.

The same can be said with South Korea for a very long time as they relations between the two counties would improve and then Japan would do something intentional or not, and South Korea would get upset with what Japan said or did. 

The two neighbors with Japan are like relatives as there is always something being said or done that causes one or both of them to get upset with Japan.

Someone in the Japanese government has suggested that the goal is 40 million foreign visitors by as certain date which I can't remember at the moment.

Not to say anything negative about what is going on in Japan but there seems to be a movement against foreigners living and working in Japan which could spill over to foreign visitors going to Japan if what is being suggested becomes reality.

For example, good or bad, it has been suggested that Japan culture is more important than population growth and they want to preserve their culture thinking too many foreigners living and working in Japan might destroy Japanese culture.

But at the same time, Japan needs more population growth if it wants to continue to fund the government as overtime there just aren't going to be enough people or Japanese citizens to keep the government programs open. 

Its going to be very challenging as Japan is at a cross-roads between growing its economy and trying to tackle is decreasing population as there might not be any other way but to increase the foreign population in Japan to keep the economy growing and even funding the national pension system in Japan.

There is going to be a lot resistance but it might be Japans only choice to save its decreasing population and decreasing economy.

Have a nice day!