Japan's Tourism Agency says hotels, inns and other types of lodging in the country accommodated 11.6 million foreign guests in November. That's a record for the month.

The preliminary figure is about three times higher than last year. It is also 28 percent higher than the number in November 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic began.

The number of Japanese guests fell by 0.1 percent from the year before. But at nearly 42 million, it was a 3.4 percent increase over four years ago.

The overall number of guests was up 16.9 percent from the same month last year.

nhk