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Filipino Visitors to Japan Plummet 82.2% in 2020 Amid Pandemic

TOKYO – The number of Filipino visitors to Japan numbered 109,100 last year, according to a preliminary data published by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), an 82.2 percent drop from 2019.

Last December, visitor arrivals from the Philippines fell by 97.2 percent from a year earlier to 2,300.

According to the same data, Japan welcomed a record low 4,115,900 foreign visitors in 2020, down 87.1 percent from the previous year.

Visitors from China accounted for 1,069,200, down 88.9 percent. Taiwan was second with 694,500, down 85.8 percent. South Korea was third at 487,900, down 91.3 percent, and Hong Kong was fourth at 346,100, down 84.9 percent.

Japan imposed tighter border restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. - Florenda Corpuz

(Few pedestrians cross an intersection in Shibuya, Tokyo on Jan. 19. Photograph by Din Eugenio)