Inbound
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Japan Arrivals Sept 2026: 3.10M (−5.0%), Where Korea and Taiwan Stay
Posted: 2026.11.14Japan's visitor arrivals for September 2026 came to 3,103,700 (estimate), down 5.0% year on year, according to figures the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) released on October 21. Within that total, South Korea sent 842,300 visitors (+25.6%) and Taiwan 595,600 (+13.0%), both record highs for a September. The January–September cumulative total reached 30,730,200 (−2.9%), topping 30 million by September for the second year running. This article first confirms the market-by-market changes in JNTO's primary data, then uses the Japan Tourism Agency's Overnight Travel Statistics Survey (nationality-based guest nights) to identify the prefectures where the growing markets stay, and finally examines how well those prefectures' September estimated OCC and finalized settled ADR held up.
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China’s Japan Travel Advisory 1 Year On: Dec at 330K, a Lower YoY Base
Posted: 2026.11.14China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged its citizens to avoid travel to Japan for the time being on November 14, 2025, and November 14, 2026 marks exactly one year since. According to visitor arrival data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), Chinese arrivals fell to 330,435 in December 2025, the month after the advisory (−45.3% YoY), and the January–September 2026 total came to just 3,335,500 (−55.5% YoY). What is easy to overlook is that from the December 2026 figures onward, the "same month last year" baseline itself switches to this depressed level. This article quantifies how far the baseline has fallen, nationally and by prefecture, and sets out how to read the YoY figures that will be published from December onward.
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Canada Japan Visitors Hit Record 688K in 2025: Oct Peak, Stays & ADR
Posted: 2026.11.13According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), 688,019 travelers from Canada visited Japan in 2025, up 18.7% year on year and an all-time annual record. The busiest single month was October with 73,667 visitors, while the fastest growth came in April at +39.3% YoY. In the Japan Tourism Agency's (JTA) Inbound Consumption Survey, Canadian travel spending reached ¥220.2 billion (+24.7% YoY), with per-person spending of ¥322,489 and an average stay of 14.6 nights — well above the all-nationality average (¥228,782 and 9.5 nights), making Canada a long-stay market. In this article we use the JTA Overnight Travel Statistics to identify the prefectures where Canadians actually stay, then line up municipal estimated settled ADR for the autumn-foliage season (including October, the peak month) and the ski season (when Hokkaido's share doubles), together with estimated OCC for September 2026, to gauge how deep the hosting capacity is.
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US Visitors to Japan Hit Record 271K in December: Where They Stay
Posted: 2026.11.11US arrivals to Japan reached 270,704 in December 2025 (+13.5% YoY), a new record for the month of December. Together with November’s 302,547, the two months totaled 573,251 visitors, or 17.3% of the annual 3,306,820, showing that travel to Japan builds up strongly through the US holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas and the year-end. Thanksgiving 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26. Using monthly statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) and the Japan Tourism Agency’s Overnight Travel Statistics, this article identifies the prefectures where US travelers stay in November–December, then examines winter rates and the share of English-language reviews across the 12 host prefectures, and how to structure multi-night stay plans.
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130M Regional Inbound Nights by 2030: +16.5%/yr, 23% of Vacant Rooms
Posted: 2026.11.11The Fifth Basic Plan for the Promotion of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country (観光立国推進基本計画), adopted by Cabinet decision on March 27, 2026 for fiscal 2026–2030, keeps the 2030 targets of 60 million international visitors and ¥15 trillion in visitor spending, and restates a goal of 130 million foreign guest nights in regional Japan. The final 2025 figure was 60.56 million guest nights, so the target is 2.15 times that level, or growth of 16.5% a year on average. This article measures the gap between the target and current results, converts the extra guest nights into hotel rooms, and uses Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) statistics and MetroEngines Research data to show where regional Japan still has room to absorb demand.
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Indonesian Visitors Hit Record 640,577 in 2025: Dec Peak, Halal, ADR
Posted: 2026.11.10According to estimates by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), 640,577 people visited Japan from Indonesia in 2025, up 23.7% from 517,651 the previous year and a new record. The monthly peak came in December (81,678 visitors), which coincides with the year-end school holidays. Final figures from the Japan Tourism Agency's Overnight Travel Statistics Survey show that in that same December, Indonesian guest nights in Hokkaido rose 42.8% year on year, placing Hokkaido second only to Tokyo. This article layers four views in turn — where the monthly peaks fall, which prefectures Indonesian travelers stay in, how guest reviews mentioning halal options are distributed, and December estimated settled ADR in the leading prefectures — to map out the opportunities for welcoming guests in the holiday season that starts in late December.
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Singapore Puts 19.4% of Japan Trips in December; Malaysia +40.4%
Posted: 2026.11.10Breaking down the December 2025 visitor arrivals estimate published by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) on January 21, 2026 by market, Singapore sent 140,600 visitors (+3.2% YoY), Malaysia 100,600 (+40.4%) and Indonesia 81,700 (+8.9%) — all three record highs for any single month. On a full-year basis, Singapore reached 726,200 (+5.1%), Malaysia 636,600 (+25.6%) and Indonesia 640,600 (+23.8%), again all-time records. This article uses the Japan Tourism Agency's Overnight Travel Statistics Survey, broken down by nationality and prefecture, to check which prefectures gained lodging volume from the school holidays that begin in late November in Singapore and Malaysia. It then overlays the estimated settled ADR of those host prefectures and the patterns in English-language reviews to set out the operating issues heading into December 2026.
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Gifu Hotel Reviews: 24.1% Foreign, Spanish Beats French; Winter ADR
Posted: 2026.11.09We tallied 135,021 guest reviews posted for lodging facilities in Gifu Prefecture over the past 24 months by language: 24.1% were written in a language other than Japanese, and the fourth most common language — after English (14.9%) and Traditional Chinese (2.6%) — was Spanish (2.3%). Next to neighboring Nagano Prefecture, where foreign-language reviews account for 17.0% and Spanish for just 0.3%, Gifu stands out as a prefecture that Spanish-speaking travelers actively write about. What guests value also changes with the language: English reviews lead with food and location, Traditional Chinese with proximity to the station and hot springs, and Spanish, French and German with attentive service. This article lays out the evaluation criteria by language in numbers, introduces properties discussed in English, Traditional Chinese and Spanish with actual review excerpts, and — drawing on the estimated settled ADR of Takayama City, Gero City and Shirakawa Village and the dates of the 2027 Shirakawa-go Light-Up — examines from an operator's perspective how to serve a multilingual guest base.
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Thai Winter Stays in Japan: Hokkaido, Yamanashi, Gifu; Dec Peak 626k
Posted: 2026.11.08According to estimates by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), Thai visitors to Japan totaled 1,233,103 in 2025 (+7.3% YoY), and December, at 174,009, set an all-time single-month record. Breaking down the 2025 final figures of the Japan Tourism Agency's Overnight Travel Statistics Survey by nationality, December was also the busiest month of the year for Thai guest nights, at 625,950. This article first confirms the monthly peaks of the Thai market, then uses the statistics to identify the prefectures with the most Thai stays and those where Thailand's share of foreign guest nights exceeds the national average. Lining up winter (December and January) estimated settled ADR and room occupancy, it identifies the prefectures that absorb Thai winter demand.
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Vegan-Friendly Hotels in Japan: 30 Properties, 535 Guest Reviews
Posted: 2026.11.08Inbound visitors to Japan topped 40 million in a single year for the first time in 2025, and the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) revised its hospitality guide, noting that "the number of international visitors with diverse dietary and religious practices, such as vegetarians, vegans and Muslims, is considered to be increasing." So where are the hotels and ryokan whose vegan-friendly meals are actually being praised in guest reviews? The HotelBank Editorial Team ran an NLP analysis of guest reviews from the past 24 months and found 30 properties with 10 or more positive mentions of vegetarian/vegan meal options, totalling 535 mentions. This article sorts those 30 properties into four types — shukubo (temple lodgings), retreats, city hotels and onsen ryokan — and examines how mention volume and density differ, which languages the mentions are written in, and the untapped potential of halal options, where only three properties met the same criteria.