Kankō irikomi kyakusū (観光入込客数, tourism visitor arrivals) is read “kankō irikomi kyakusū”. It is a statistic in which each prefecture counts the number of people who visited tourist sites, festivals and events within the prefecture, following the Japan Tourism Agency’s (JTA) “Common Standards for Tourism Visitor Statistics.” Most people who search for this term want not only its reading and definition but also a “ranking of tourist numbers by prefecture” — yet a national ranking cannot be built from this statistic. This article first takes the reading and definition directly from the JTA’s survey guidelines, then explains the structural reasons a national ranking does not work, and instead presents a ranking based on the 2025 final figures for guest nights from the JTA’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey, where all 47 prefectures are measured on the same yardstick. For the top 10 prefectures we also show the estimated settled ADR from MetroEngines Research to confirm that high visitor volume and high room rates do not go hand in hand.
• ADR (average daily rate) = estimated settled room rate (tax-excluded equivalent), calculated by applying a property-type correction factor to the lowest-plan price level each property publishes on OTAs (price per room for 2 guests, tax included). Checked against property-level results disclosed by listed hotel REITs (91 properties, most recent 3 months), the median error is about 7%. These are estimates and differ from each property’s actual settled prices and accounting figures.
• Area-level ADR (prefecture / municipality) is the median of the estimated settled rates of the target properties (the level of a typical property in the area).
• Where listed prices are mentioned, they are the price per room for 2 guests (tax included).
• OCC (occupancy) = share of sold rooms relative to total rooms in the area (estimate based on OTA sales inventory).
• Source: MetroEngines Research (continuous tracking of OTA public prices for approx. 168,000 properties in Japan, of which approx. 27,000 are confirmed active)
- — Read as “kankō irikomi kyakusū”. A statistic in which each prefecture estimates the number of people visiting tourist sites in the prefecture under the JTA’s Common Standards; the unit is unique visitors, counted in “person-visits” (人回).
- — A national ranking cannot be built. Osaka has not adopted the standards, the JTA’s national compilation stopped at the 2022 annual figures (20 of 46 prefectures), and each prefecture selects tourist sites differently.
- — Use guest nights to compare prefectures. 2025 final figures: 661.11 million guest nights nationwide, led by Tokyo (107.901M), Osaka (58.773M) and Hokkaido (46.504M) (N=47 prefectures).
- — Volume and rates do not line up. In August 2026, Hokkaido’s business-hotel estimated settled ADR of ¥11,300 (N=438 properties) exceeded Osaka’s ¥8,800 (N=503 properties).
What Is Kankō Irikomi Kyakusū? — Reading and One-Line Definition
It is read “kankō irikomi kyakusū.” “Irikomi” (入込) means people coming in, and like “person-nights” (人泊) in lodging statistics or “gaikyaku” (外客, foreign visitors) in inbound statistics, it is an established industry term. The JTA’s “Common Standards for Tourism Visitor Statistics: Survey Guidelines” define a tourism visitor as “a person who travels to a place outside their usual environment and whose stay there is not for the purpose of earning remuneration,” and state that “persons who visited tourist sites and festivals/events are counted as tourism visitors.” In other words, tourism visitor arrivals are a prefecture-level estimate of the number of people who visited tourist sites and similar locations within the prefecture.
The key point is that this is not a national survey but a prefectural survey. The JTA established the Common Standards in December 2009 and revised them in March 2013 and May 2023, but it is each prefecture that conducts the survey and publishes the results. According to the JTA, before the Common Standards were created each prefecture tallied figures with its own methods, unique and cumulative counts were mixed, and inter-regional comparison was difficult. The aim of aligning the standards was to make it possible to “compare the current state and trends of tourism across regions.”
According to the JTA’s page, 46 prefectures have adopted the Common Standards; only Osaka has not. 39 prefectures adopted them from the April–June 2010 quarter, 1 from October–December 2010, 5 from January–March 2011, and 1 from April–June 2013.Yamanashi is among the prefectures that adopted the standards from April–June 2010; its press release describes the survey as “conducted since 2011 (Heisei 23).”
Inside the Common Standards — Two Surveys and Estimates in 12 Categories
The Common Standards consist of two surveys. The first is the Tourist Site Visitor Count Survey, a complete count of people who visited tourist sites and festivals/events in the prefecture, collected by “requesting quarterly reports from tourist site managers, festival/event organizers and others.” The second is the Tourist Site Parameter Survey, a sample survey that asks tourists at tourist sites each quarter about the number of sites they visited in the prefecture, their spending per person and so on. The survey guidelines specify the JTA’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey and the Travel and Tourism Consumption Trend Survey as a third source to complement these.
Three statistics are estimated from these two surveys: (1) tourism visitor arrivals (the number of tourism visitors to the prefecture), (2) tourism spending per visitor (spending within the prefecture per visitor per trip), and (3) total tourism spending ((1) × (2)). According to the overview document, these three indicators are further estimated in 12 categories: “overnight or day-trip” × “from within the prefecture, from outside the prefecture, or international visitors” × “leisure or business purpose.” This design is why prefectural reports carry detailed figures such as “from outside the prefecture / overnight / leisure,” and for reading hotel demand these 12 categories are where the real value lies.
Accuracy, however, varies by category. The survey guidelines say that statistics for leisure purposes are highly accurate because the parameter survey can secure a sufficient sample size, but warn that for business day-trippers “it is expected that the required sample size cannot be secured, so the figures may have large errors.” This caveat should not be forgotten when trying to read day-trip business demand from this statistic.
Unique vs. Cumulative Counts — What the Unit “Person-Visits” Means
The unit of tourism visitor arrivals is the “person-visit” (人回). The survey guidelines explain: “This is a count of tourism visitors who visited tourist sites in the prefecture; for example, even if one tourism visitor visits several tourist sites in the prefecture, they are counted as one person-visit (unique count).” In other words, the tourism visitor arrivals figure under the Common Standards takes the cumulative count (the simple sum of tourist-site reports) and divides it by the average number of sites visited obtained from the parameter survey, converting it into a unique count.
Gifu, which publishes both figures, shows how much this conversion matters. In Gifu’s 2024 (Reiwa 6) survey, the cumulative count was 66.557 million while the unique count was 44.698 million, implying an average of about 1.5 sites visited. Kyoto, meanwhile, revised its basis from the 2020 (Reiwa 2) survey, switching from “the total of visitors at major tourism-related facilities (cumulative count)” to “the cumulative count divided by the average number of sites visited obtained from the prefecture’s questionnaire survey (unique count),” as its report states explicitly. Even under the same term “tourism visitor arrivals,” whether the figure is cumulative or unique can differ by year and by prefecture.
How Tourist Sites Are Selected — Three Requirements for Inclusion
Visitor numbers change greatly depending on what is called a “tourist site.” The survey guidelines define a tourist site as “a facility with the power to attract tourists, or a location that serves as a base for tourism activities, regardless of purpose such as leisure or business,” and draw a line: “locations where everyday use such as commercial facilities, or pass-through use such as stations, airports and ports, is considered to account for the majority are not covered.” Festivals are “historical events, festivals and local performing arts handed down through tradition and custom in local residents’ lives and held regularly on fixed dates,” and events are “expositions, trade fairs, conventions and the like held at permanent or temporary venues.”
On top of that, three requirements apply for inclusion. Requirement 1 is that non-routine use is high (the share of people who visit at least once a month is less than half); requirement 2 is that it is a site where visitor numbers can be properly measured; and requirement 3 is that the previous year’s visitors were 10,000 or more for the year, or 5,000 or more in a particular month of the previous year. Festivals and events are included if they meet requirements 2 and 3. Judgment on requirement 1 is left to “the judgment of the manager or others who understand actual usage,” and in practice they are asked to “judge comprehensively from clothing, footwear and the license plates of cars in the parking lot.”
This is where differences between prefectures can arise. Yamanashi’s press release states that for 2024 it surveyed monthly visitor counts at 363 tourist sites in the prefecture and conducted questionnaires at 10 sites each quarter. Gifu’s top site was Toki Premium Outlets (4.771 million), followed by Kasen Kankyo Rakuen (4.454 million) and the Takayama city center area (3.871 million). Whether an outlet mall is listed as a tourist site or excluded as a commercial facility is up to each prefecture, and that judgment directly affects the prefectural total.
Why a “Tourist Numbers Ranking by Prefecture” Cannot Be Built
For readers looking for a “ranking of tourist numbers by prefecture,” let us say up front: a national ranking cannot be built from tourism visitor statistics. There are four reasons.
First, Osaka has not adopted the Common Standards. With no Osaka entry in a 46-prefecture table, it cannot become a 47-prefecture national ranking. Second, the JTA’s national compilation has stopped. According to the JTA’s page (last updated August 20, 2024), the JTA compiled results only up to the March 2024 release; the latest annual figures are for 2022, and only 20 of the 46 prefectures were included. The latest quarterly figures are for July–September 2023, covering just 4 prefectures. Reading this “2022, 20 prefectures” as the latest national statistic is a mistake; each prefecture publishes more recent years individually.
Third, publishers and timing have become scattered across prefectures. The JTA posts a “List of Prefectural Tourism Statistics Pages” as of October 2, 2026, giving entry points to the tourism statistics pages of all 47 prefectures, but Yamanashi’s 2024 figures were released on October 31, 2025 and Gifu’s on December 22, 2025, so the timing at which figures for the same year become available varies by close to a year. Fourth, as described in the previous section, the selection of tourist sites differs by prefecture, and the treatment of cumulative versus unique counts can change midway, as in Kyoto. Lined up side by side they are not on the same yardstick, so any comparison requires notes.
Given the above, the honest answer for readers who want to compare demand size across prefectures is: “Do not use tourism visitor arrivals; use guest nights from the Overnight Travel Statistics Survey, which the JTA compiles monthly for all 47 prefectures using the same method.” The next section presents that ranking.
Alternative Indicator — Guest Nights Ranking of 47 Prefectures (2025 Final Figures)
According to the 2025 annual figures (final) released by the JTA on July 6, 2026, national guest nights were 661.11 million (+0.3% YoY), of which foreign guests accounted for 179.92 million (+9.4% YoY), a 27.2% share of the total. By prefecture, Tokyo ranked first with 107.901 million guest nights (-2.2% YoY), 16.3% of the national total, followed by Osaka in second with 58.773 million (+2.3%) and Hokkaido in third with 46.504 million (+4.2%). Fourth-placed Okinawa at 33.862 million (+8.3%) and fifth-placed Kyoto at 33.157 million (-3.1%) were close, with Okinawa posting the highest growth among the top five.
Source: JTA “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey,” 2025 annual figures (final, released July 6, 2026), compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (N=47 prefectures, top 15 shown)
The table below shows, for the top 15 prefectures, the 2025 final figures alongside August 2026 (second preliminary figures, released October 30, 2026), the latest month with prefecture-level data at the time of writing. In August 2026 guest nights fell below the previous year nationally to 62.40 million (-7.2% YoY), and the JTA notes that the share of regional areas outside the three major metropolitan areas rose 2.6 points to 61.6%. Among the top prefectures, declines were large in Tokyo (-14.7%), Osaka (-21.9%) and Okinawa (-21.2%), while Shizuoka (+9.1%) and Nagano (+5.1%) grew, and on a monthly basis Hokkaido ranks above Osaka. Preliminary figures are revised in later preliminary and final releases; how large the gap between preliminary and final figures tends to be is covered in our guide to the Overnight Travel Statistics Survey.
| Rank | Prefecture | 2025 Guest Nights (person-nights, final) | YoY | National Share | Foreign Share | Aug 2026 (person-nights, 2nd prelim.) | YoY (same month) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tokyo | 107,900,610 | -2.2% | 16.3% | 55.7% | 7,864,350 | -14.7% |
| 2 | Osaka | 58,772,820 | +2.3% | 8.9% | 41.7% | 4,298,610 | -21.9% |
| 3 | Hokkaido | 46,503,620 | +4.2% | 7.0% | 28.6% | 4,514,050 | -10.0% |
| 4 | Okinawa | 33,862,060 | +8.3% | 5.1% | 27.2% | 2,925,420 | -21.2% |
| 5 | Kyoto | 33,157,290 | -3.1% | 5.0% | 55.2% | 2,541,380 | -10.9% |
| 6 | Chiba | 28,244,190 | -0.1% | 4.3% | 15.5% | 2,754,200 | -2.0% |
| 7 | Kanagawa | 26,794,990 | +2.7% | 4.1% | 18.4% | 2,303,080 | -15.2% |
| 8 | Fukuoka | 25,483,210 | +6.4% | 3.9% | 33.0% | 2,062,250 | -10.1% |
| 9 | Aichi | 22,750,670 | +6.7% | 3.4% | 21.4% | 2,012,060 | -7.9% |
| 10 | Shizuoka | 22,407,160 | -2.6% | 3.4% | 9.9% | 2,759,270 | +9.1% |
| 11 | Nagano | 19,048,010 | -5.3% | 2.9% | 13.2% | 2,572,860 | +5.1% |
| 12 | Hyogo | 16,395,830 | -0.7% | 2.5% | 12.1% | 1,666,960 | -2.5% |
| 13 | Hiroshima | 11,631,520 | -3.7% | 1.8% | 18.2% | 1,121,820 | -3.2% |
| 14 | Tochigi | 11,092,840 | -5.0% | 1.7% | 4.3% | 1,072,150 | -17.0% |
| 15 | Miyagi | 10,417,370 | +1.5% | 1.6% | 9.6% | 1,068,570 | -2.6% |
Source: JTA “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey,” 2025 annual figures (final, released July 6, 2026) and August 2026 (second preliminary, released October 30, 2026), compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (N=47 prefectures). From the January 2026 survey, the stratification basis was changed from number of employees to number of rooms, so YoY changes may include the effect of this revision.
Volume and Rates Do Not Line Up — Guest Nights × Estimated Settled ADR for the Top 10 Prefectures
Prefectures with a larger demand base do not necessarily have higher rates. Plotting the top 10 prefectures’ August 2026 guest nights (second preliminary) against the same month’s estimated settled ADR for the business-hotel category (MetroEngines Research, median of target properties in each prefecture) on a scatter chart, the relationship is weak once Tokyo is excluded (correlation coefficient 0.57 across 10 prefectures, 0.29 across the 9 excluding Tokyo). Hokkaido, third in guest nights, has a business-hotel estimated settled ADR of ¥11,300 (N=438 properties), close to first-placed Tokyo (¥11,600, N=915 properties), while second-placed Osaka is at ¥8,800 (N=503 properties), below Fukuoka (¥10,800, N=341 properties), which has less than half Osaka’s volume. Seasonality in August plays a role (peak leisure season for Hokkaido and Okinawa, a trough in business demand for Osaka), and the order could change on an annual basis, but the point that “volume rankings should not be read directly as rate rankings” holds regardless of the month. A classification of all 47 prefectures — not just the top 10 — on the two axes of guest nights and rates is covered in our July 2026 volume × rate four-quadrant analysis.
Source: JTA “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey,” August 2026 (second preliminary) / MetroEngines Research (business-hotel category, estimated settled ADR, August 2026; number of properties shown in table), compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team
| 2025 Rank | Prefecture | Aug 2026 Guest Nights (person-nights, 2nd prelim.) | Business Hotel Est. Settled ADR (Aug 2026) | Properties (N) | Foreign Share (2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tokyo | 7,864,350 | ¥11,554 | 915 | 55.7% |
| 2 | Osaka | 4,298,610 | ¥8,772 | 503 | 41.7% |
| 3 | Hokkaido | 4,514,050 | ¥11,328 | 438 | 28.6% |
| 4 | Okinawa | 2,925,420 | ¥9,734 | 196 | 27.2% |
| 5 | Kyoto | 2,541,380 | ¥9,993 | 325 | 55.2% |
| 6 | Chiba | 2,754,200 | ¥8,042 | 165 | 15.5% |
| 7 | Kanagawa | 2,303,080 | ¥9,274 | 210 | 18.4% |
| 8 | Fukuoka | 2,062,250 | ¥10,837 | 341 | 33.0% |
| 9 | Aichi | 2,012,060 | ¥7,852 | 319 | 21.4% |
| 10 | Shizuoka | 2,759,270 | ¥7,854 | 221 | 9.9% |
Source: JTA “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey,” August 2026 (second preliminary) and 2025 annual figures (final) / MetroEngines Research (business-hotel category, August 2026, estimated settled ADR), compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team
One factor explaining the rate gap is the share of foreign guests. In the 2025 final figures, foreign guests accounted for more than half of guest nights in Tokyo (55.7%) and Kyoto (55.2%), followed by Osaka at 41.7%, Fukuoka at 33.0%, Hokkaido at 28.6% and Okinawa at 27.2%. Chiba (15.5%) and Shizuoka (9.9%) are well below the national average of 27.2%, with domestic leisure and nearby demand forming the core of their base. Across the top 10 prefectures, the correlation coefficient between the foreign share (2025) and estimated settled ADR (August 2026) is 0.64 (0.50 across the 9 excluding Tokyo), so there is a tendency for prefectures with a higher foreign share to show higher rates, but this is descriptive statistics with N=10 and does not demonstrate causation. Also, in periods such as August 2026, when foreign guest nights fell 12.0% YoY, the base shrinks more sharply. When looking at the base, it is essential to read volume and composition together.
Source: JTA “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey,” 2025 annual figures (final), compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team (top 10 prefectures by guest nights)
How Four Statistics Differ — Tourism Visitor Arrivals, Guest Nights, Visitor Arrivals to Japan and Travel Consumption Trends
There are several official statistics showing the “number of people” in tourism demand, each with a different unit and scope. Tourism visitor statistics count people who visited tourist sites in the prefecture in “person-visits”; the Overnight Travel Statistics Survey counts people who stayed at lodging facilities in “person-nights”; visitor arrivals to Japan count foreigners who entered Japan in “persons” and are not allocated to prefectures; and the Travel and Tourism Consumption Trend Survey counts Japanese residents’ trips in destination-based “person-visits” and gives spending in yen. The table below compares them. For the definition of visitor arrivals and the difference between estimated, provisional and final figures, see our guide to JNTO statistics.
| Statistic | Tourism Visitor Statistics (Common Standards) | Overnight Travel Statistics Survey | Visitor Arrivals Statistics | Travel and Tourism Consumption Trend Survey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it counts | People who visited tourist sites, festivals and events in the prefecture (tourism visitor arrivals), tourism spending per visitor, total tourism spending | Guest nights of people who stayed at lodging facilities, room occupancy rate, foreign guest nights | Number of foreign travelers who entered Japan (based on immigration statistics) | Number of trips and spending on domestic and overseas travel by Japanese residents |
| Unit | Person-visits (unique count), yen | Person-nights | Persons | Person-visits, yen |
| Scope | Sites registered on the tourist site list (3 requirements, e.g. 10,000+ visitors in the previous year) | Lodging facilities nationwide (sample survey, stratified by number of rooms) | Foreign entrants (short-term visitors, etc.) | Japanese residents (sample survey, destination-based) |
| Publisher | Each prefecture (JTA sets the Common Standards) | Japan Tourism Agency | Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) | Japan Tourism Agency |
| Frequency | Quarterly / annual (once a year in some prefectures) | Monthly (1st and 2nd preliminary) and annual (preliminary and final) | Monthly (estimate → provisional → final) | Quarterly / annual (preliminary → final) |
| National comparison | JTA compilation stopped at 2022 annual figures (20/46 prefectures); published individually by each prefecture | All 47 prefectures compiled with the same method; comparable | By country/region; prefecture-level data is a separate statistic (visit rates) | Prefecture-level figures are reference tabulations (destination-based) |
| Latest figures (at time of writing) | 2024 or 2025 figures depending on prefecture (Gifu: 2024 figures; Yamanashi: 2025 figures released October 30, 2026; Kyoto: 2025 figures released June 12, 2026) | 2025 annual (final); monthly up to September 2026 (1st preliminary) | Up to September 2026 (see our guide on this site) | 2025 annual (final) |
Source: JTA “Common Standards for Tourism Visitor Statistics: Survey Guidelines,” “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey,” “Travel and Tourism Consumption Trend Survey”; JNTO “Visitor Arrivals Statistics,” compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team
Reading It in Practice — Turning Prefectural Reports into Hotel Demand
When local governments, DMOs or investors pick up a prefecture’s tourism visitor statistics, there are three figures to extract in order to connect them to hotel demand. The first is the number of tourist sites. Checking how many sites are on the list — such as Yamanashi’s 363 sites (2024; 359 sites in 2025) — shows how broad a base the prefecture’s visitor arrivals figure aggregates. If the number of sites changed from the previous year, an increase or decrease in visitors may reflect changes in the list rather than demand.
The second is the share of visitors from outside the prefecture. Of the 12 categories, the sum of visitors from outside the prefecture and international visitors — excluding in-prefecture visitors — is close to the base of visits that can convert into lodging demand. In-prefecture visitors are mostly day-trippers and rarely become hotel guests. The third is the share of overnight visitors. In Gifu’s 2024 figures, of 44.698 million unique visitors, 7.416 million (16.6%) were overnight visitors and 37.282 million (83.4%) were day-trippers, and spending per person was ¥3,758 for day-trippers versus ¥35,219 for overnight visitors — a gap of about 9.4x. A structure in which more than 80% of visitors go home without staying shows, conversely, the upside in spending if they can be converted to overnight stays.
Overlaying these three figures on guest nights and room stock from the Overnight Travel Statistics Survey makes it possible to quantitatively identify prefectures where “people come but do not stay.” Our ranking of day-trip-heavy prefectures calculates nights per visit by prefecture, and our 20-prefecture overnight-stay-rate ranking compares the overnight visitor share from tourism visitor statistics with room stock. Both use tourism visitor statistics as “statistics of the base” and lodging statistics as “statistics of the outcome.”
Examples of Prefectural Statistics — What Yamanashi, Kyoto and Gifu Publish, and Where
Since the JTA’s compilation has stopped, in practice you have to go directly to prefectural pages. For three prefectures with high search demand, we summarize where their publications are and what items they contain.
| Item | Yamanashi | Kyoto | Gifu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statistic | Yamanashi Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey | Kyoto Tourism Visitor Arrivals Survey | Gifu Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey |
| Latest release | 2025 (Reiwa 7) figures released October 30, 2026 (figures in this table are 2024, released October 31, 2025) | 2025 (Reiwa 7) figures released June 12, 2026 (figures in this table are from the 2024 report; page updated July 29, 2026) | 2024 (Reiwa 6) figures, released December 22, 2025 |
| Tourism visitor arrivals (unique count) | 31.588 million (+22.7% YoY) | 84.25 million (112% of previous year); 28.19 million in the prefecture excluding Kyoto City | 44.698 million (+2.4% YoY); cumulative count 66.557 million |
| Overnight / day-trip breakdown | Overnight 9.381 million, day-trip 22.207 million (both unique counts) | See tables in the report (not shown on the summary page) | Overnight 7.416 million (16.6%), day-trip 37.282 million (83.4%) |
| Tourism spending | ¥486.5 billion (+53.2% YoY; ¥15,402 per person) | ¥2.0581 trillion (124% of previous year) | ¥401.273 billion (+31.8% YoY); ¥35,219 per overnight visitor |
| Survey design notes | Monthly survey at 363 tourist sites in the prefecture; questionnaires at 10 sites each quarter | Estimated from figures reported by municipalities plus coefficients from the prefecture’s questionnaire. From 2020 the basis changed to unique counts (cumulative count divided by average number of sites visited) | Top 10 by tourist site (Toki Premium Outlets 4.771M, Kasen Kankyo Rakuen 4.454M, Takayama city center 3.871M) and top 10 festivals/events |
| [Reference] Key 2025 (Reiwa 7) figures | Unique count 33.30 million (+5.4% YoY); overnight 9.827 million, day-trip 23.473 million; tourism spending ¥496.5 billion (+2.0% YoY; ¥14,908 per person); 359 survey sites | 91.47 million (109% of previous year); 28.68 million in the prefecture excluding Kyoto City; tourism spending ¥2.2559 trillion (111% of previous year) | 2024 figures are the latest (as posted on the prefecture’s tourism statistics page at the time of writing) |
Source: Yamanashi Prefecture “Yamanashi Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey, January–December 2024” press release; Kyoto Prefecture “Tourism Visitor Arrivals and Tourism Spending in Kyoto Prefecture, 2024”; Gifu Prefecture “Gifu Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey, 2024”; Yamanashi Prefecture “Yamanashi Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey, January–December 2025” press release (October 30, 2026); Kyoto Prefecture “Tourism Visitor Arrivals and Tourism Spending in Kyoto Prefecture, 2025,” compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team
Comparing the three prefectures’ materials, presentation varies considerably even under the same Common Standards. Yamanashi separates overnight and day-trip visitors on a unique-count basis and puts tourism spending front and center as a KGI of its plan. Kyoto shows Kyoto City and the rest of the prefecture separately and explains the 2020 change of basis at the beginning of its report. Gifu lists cumulative and unique counts side by side and publishes top 10 lists by tourist site and by festival/event; it also notes that the number of foreign overnight visitors is calculated from foreign guest nights in the JTA’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey (1.929 million guest nights in 2024), showing that prefectural statistics and national lodging statistics are connected. When visiting prefectural pages, check not just the one-page press release cover but also the table numbers in the main report, and confirm whether figures are cumulative or unique and how many sites are aggregated.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How is 観光入込客数 read?
A. It is read “kankō irikomi kyakusū.” “Irikomi” (入込) means people coming in, and in tourism statistics the term refers to the number of people who visited tourist sites, festivals and events within a prefecture.
Q. What is the difference between unique and cumulative counts?
A. The cumulative count is the sum of visitors counted at each tourist site, so one person who visits 3 sites in the prefecture counts as 3. The unique count divides this by the average number of sites visited, obtained from visitor questionnaires; “tourism visitor arrivals” under the Common Standards is a unique count (unit: person-visits). In Gifu’s 2024 figures, the cumulative count was 66.557 million versus a unique count of 44.698 million.
Q. Why is there no national ranking by prefecture?
A. Because only 46 prefectures have adopted the Common Standards (Osaka has not), the JTA’s national compilation stopped with the 2022 annual figures (20 prefectures), and each prefecture selects tourist sites independently and publishes at different times. To compare visitor volume across prefectures, guest nights from the JTA’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey are available for all 47 prefectures using the same method.
Q. What is the latest year of tourism visitor arrivals data?
A. On the JTA page (last updated August 20, 2024), the national compilation covers annual figures up to 2022 and quarterly figures up to July–September 2023. Prefectural releases are more recent: Yamanashi released its 2025 figures on October 30, 2026, Kyoto its 2025 figures on June 12, 2026, and Gifu its 2024 figures on December 22, 2025. When using the data, distinguish between the year of the JTA compilation and the year of the prefectural release.
Q. Which statistic should I use to look at hotel demand?
A. The basic measure of the lodging demand base is guest nights (person-nights) from the JTA’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey. Tourism visitor statistics show total visits including day-trippers, the share of overnight visitors and the share of visitors from outside the prefecture, so they serve as a supplementary guide to measure the room for converting “people who come but do not stay.”
Q. Are business travelers included in tourism visitor arrivals?
A. Yes. The Common Standards define a tourism visitor as “a person who travels to a place outside their usual environment and whose stay there is not for the purpose of earning remuneration,” and then classify visitors as leisure or business according to purpose. However, the survey guidelines state that a sufficient sample of business day-trippers is hard to secure and the figures may have large errors.
Summary
Kankō irikomi kyakusū (tourism visitor arrivals) is a statistic in which each prefecture estimates the number of people who visited tourist sites and similar locations in the prefecture under the JTA’s Common Standards. It is designed to estimate tourism visitor arrivals, spending per visitor and total tourism spending in 12 categories from two surveys — the Tourist Site Visitor Count Survey and the Tourist Site Parameter Survey — and its unit is the unique-count “person-visit.” On the other hand, because Osaka has not adopted the standards, the JTA’s compilation stopped at the 2022 annual figures (20 prefectures), and site selection and release timing differ by prefecture, a national prefectural ranking cannot be built from this statistic. To compare demand size across prefectures, guest nights from the Overnight Travel Statistics Survey are the right measure; in the 2025 final figures the order was Tokyo (107.901 million), Osaka (58.773 million) and Hokkaido (46.504 million). Volume rankings and rate rankings do not match: in August 2026, Hokkaido’s business-hotel estimated settled ADR exceeded Osaka’s. For those reading the base at the prefectural level, the practical approach is to extract the number of sites, the share of visitors from outside the prefecture and the share of overnight visitors from tourism visitor statistics, and use them together with lodging statistics.
Note on the data: The statements on the JTA’s “Tourism Visitor Statistics under the Common Standards” page (adopted by 46 prefectures; compilation up to the 2022 annual figures; last updated August 20, 2024) were confirmed as of November 6, 2026. Prefectural tourism visitor statistics are published independently by each prefecture, and the selection of tourist sites and the treatment of cumulative/unique counts differ by prefecture, so notes are required when comparing figures across prefectures. Guest nights for August 2026 are second preliminary figures and may be revised when the annual figures are finalized. Estimated settled ADR is an estimate by MetroEngines Research and shows the median of target properties in the business-hotel category of each prefecture.
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References and Sources
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Tourism Visitor Statistics under the Common Standards” (共通基準による観光入込客統計; last updated August 20, 2024; accessed November 6, 2026)
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Common Standards for Tourism Visitor Statistics: Survey Guidelines” (観光入込客統計に関する共通基準 調査要領)
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Overview of the Common Standards for Tourism Visitor Statistics”
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Adoption Status of Tourism Visitor Statistics under the Common Standards (by Prefecture)”
- Japan Tourism Agency, “List of Prefectural Tourism Statistics Pages” (as of October 2, 2026)
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey (2025 Annual, Final)” press release (July 6, 2026)
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey (September 2026 1st Preliminary, August 2026 2nd Preliminary)” press release (October 30, 2026)
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Overnight Travel Statistics Survey” publication page
- Yamanashi Prefecture, “Yamanashi Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey Results” / press release “Yamanashi Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey, January–December 2024” (October 31, 2025)
- Kyoto Prefecture, “Tourism Visitor Arrivals and Tourism Spending in Kyoto Prefecture, 2024” (Kyoto Tourism Visitor Arrivals Survey Report)
- Gifu Prefecture, “Tourism Statistics” / release “Gifu Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey, 2024” (December 22, 2025)
- Yamanashi Prefecture, “Yamanashi Tourism Visitor Statistics Survey, January–December 2025” press release (October 30, 2026)
- Kyoto Prefecture, “Tourism Visitor Arrivals and Tourism Spending in Kyoto Prefecture, 2025”
- Japan Tourism Agency, “Travel and Tourism Consumption Trend Survey” publication page
- Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), “Visitor Arrivals Statistics”
- MetroEngines Research — Estimated settled ADR for the business-hotel category (by prefecture, August 2026; number of properties shown in the tables in the text)