The Japan Tourism Agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism released on July 20 a result of the consumption trend survey for foreigners visiting Japan during the period from April to June 2016.
Total spending by international tourists in the three months grew 7.2 percent to 953.3 billion yen, the Tourism Agency said.
However, the so-called bakugai, literally “explosive buying” in Japan by Chinese tourists, which had driven the growth of overall spending by foreign visitors in recent years, has begun to slow down.
And their spending declined to 353 billion yen in the last three months, down 1.5 percent. The decline took place mainly because the Chinese Government kicked off a new tax regime on luxury goods this April, under which Chinese tourists bringing in lots of foreign goods are possibly required to pay a heavy tax at Chinese airports.
The latest trend of Chinese tourists’ spending in Japan has casted a shadow over the expectation for a continuous growth in inbound tourism demand for years to come.
According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of international tourists to Japan last month reached a record-high of 1,985,700 persons for June.
During the first six months this year, 11,713,800 persons visited Japan, an increase of 28.2 percent over the same period last year and the number has surpassed 10 million for the first time in half a year, JNTO said.