Tokyo, July 20 :More than 10 million foreigners visited Japan from January to June 2023 for the first time since the same period in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese media reported, citing the Japan National Tourism Organization.

The Kyodo news agency reported that a total of 10.71 million foreign nationals arrived in Japan in the said period – 64.4% of the level seen during the same period in 2019 and exponentially higher than 507,630 recorded arrivals in the same period in 2022.

The most arrivals were seen from South Korea (3.13 million people), Taiwan (1.77 million people), the United States (972,200 people) and Hong Kong (909,700 people), the report said. Some 594,600 people arrived in Japan from mainland China during the period – only 13.1% of the arrivals compared to the January to June period in 2019.

Foreign arrivals reached 2.07 million in June 2023, topping the 2 million mark for the first time since January 2020, the media reported.