The number of visas issued by Japanese diplomatic offices abroad in 2014 jumped 54.1 percent from the previous year to a record 2,873,755 as foreign tourists to Japan increased partly on the back of the yen’s weakening, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. Some 2.05 million visas, or about 70 percent of the total, were issued for Chinese, followed by 163,000 for Filipinos and 143,000 for Indonesians. The top three countries accounted for about 80 percent of the overall issuance. The number of visas issued for Chinese group tourists tripled to about 1.1 million, reflecting a sharp increase in people visiting Japan for shopping sprees. The increase came after the number of visas issued to Chinese people decreased in 2013 partly due to the deterioration of Japan-China relations following the Japanese government’s nationalization of some of the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea in September 2012. China claims the islands as its own. Of all Japanese diplomatic offices overseas, the consulate-general in Shanghai issued the largest number of Japanese visas in 2014, at some 874,000, followed by the embassy in Beijing, at 505,000, and the consulate-general in Guangzhou, at 286,000. Including the three, seven Japanese diplomatic offices in China were on the top 10 list. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the annual number of foreign visitors to Japan, including those from visa-waiver countries, surpassed 10 million for the first time in 2013 and rose further to reach 13.41 million in 2014, thanks to the yen’s weakening and an expansion of the list of duty-free items.Speech

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