The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan totaled 10.71 million in the first half of 2023, equivalent to 64.4 percent of the 2019 level prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, government data showed Wednesday.

The figure was much higher than the 507,630 arrivals logged in the same period in 2022 as the country sees a continued recovery in inbound travelers, the Japan National Tourism Organization said.

For June alone, foreign arrivals reached 2.07 million, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese who went overseas totaled 3.61 million from January to June, only 37.9 percent of the 2019 level before the COVID-19 pandemic.

xinhua