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Number of foreign nationals entering Japan dropped 24.4%

19 January 2012 12:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. More than 10 months after the Fukushima meltdown and Japan is still dealing with the fallout - this time the key industry of tourism is reeling from the catastrophe, CNN reported.

According to government figures released Tuesday, the number of foreign nationals entering Japan dropped 24.4% from a record of 9.45 million in 2010 to 7.14 million in 2011.

New entries of foreign nationals - a figure that excludes working or studying expatriates that may have returned after home leave - made a similarly dismal showing. The Immigration Bureau of the Justice Ministry said new entrants fell from 7.92 million in 2010 to 5.45 million in 2010, slumping 31.2%.

The government says a combination of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the high level of the Japanese yen were the key factors in the decline.

The Japanese government is already going to extraordinary lengths to woo tourists back to Japan. On Tuesday, Hiroshi Mizohata, the commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency, reportedly sang the South Korean national anthem at two meetings in Seoul in a bid to lure South Korean tourists back to Japan.

South Koreans form the largest number of foreign visitors to Japan, accounting for 28.3% of foreign visitors in 2010.

A spokeswoman for the Japan National Tourism Organization told CNN that April registered the worst monthly fall in 2011, slumping as much as 80% on the same period a year ago.