Foreign Tourist Spending In Japan Rose 43% In 2014

Above, a barker announcing deals in a store in Shibuya. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A "white paper" report on tourism to Japan was issued today, and it shows that foreign tourist spending in 2014 shot up 43%.

According to an article in The Japan News (Yomiuri Shimbun):

Spending by foreign visitors to Japan rose sharply in 2014, bringing certain gains to the Japanese economy, the government said in a report Tuesday. 

The 2015 white paper on tourism said spending by visitors to Japan last year — such as on shopping and accommodation expenses — shot up 43.1 percent from 2013 to ¥2.03 trillion, owing to rising incomes in many other Asian countries, the high quality of Japanese products, the yen’s weakness against other major currencies and improvements to Japan’s duty-free system. 

Spending by Chinese visitors accounted for 27.5 percent of the total consumption by foreign visitors as more Chinese tourists visited Japan for shopping purposes.

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