The number of tourists that visited Japan was 8.61 million, just above one-tenth that of France. Looking at other Asian destinations, Japan lagged far behind China, which received 55.67 million visitors, and was behind Hong Kong (20.09 million), Thailand (15.84 million), Singapore (9.16 million), and South Korea (8.8 million), which is just next door.
Thus, the number of foreign visitors to Japan is not only extremely low compared to other advanced economies but is also lower compared to other Asian economies. Efforts should therefore be made to increase the number of foreign visitors, as this would raise derived demand for tourism-related industries.