Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) announced that the number of international arrivals in Japan in May 2026 was down 3.6% year on year to 3,559,900, which showed the year-on-year reduction for two months in a low.
Despite the reduction overall, arrivals from 19 source markets, such as South Korea, US and Malaysia, broke the previous record for May, and arrivals from Middle East and India were record-high on a monthly basis. Also, double-digit growths were seen in 11 source markets.
The biggest source market was South Korea with 951,300 arrivals (up 15.2%), followed by Taiwan with 616,800 (up 14.6%), US with 333,700 (up 7.0%), China with 313,000 (down 60.4%) and Hong Kong with 207,900 (up 7.7%).
According to JNTO, May is typically a time when demand for travel to Japan calms down in many markets, as it falls between the cherry blossom season and the summer holidays. However, this year, there was a surge in demand for travel to Japan, coinciding with public holidays and school holidays.
The total of international arrivals for the first five months of 2026 was down 1.1% to 17,936,000.
The following graphs show international arrivals by month and by source market.
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JNTO資料（対2025年比）より
