In 2023, South Korean and Japanese tourists took first place in the rankings of the numbers of foreign tourists to Japan and South Korea. This is attributed to an improvement in bilateral relations following a South Korea-Japan summit, the Korean Wave, and weaker Japanese yen effects.
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) said on Jan. 31 that 2.32 million Japanese tourists visited South Korea in 2023, accounting for 21 percent of the 11.03 million foreign tourists to South Korea.
This marked the first time in 11 years since Japanese tourists took the top spot in 2012. Chinese tourists claimed the top spot in 2013 with 4.33 million visitors, far ahead of Japanese tourists (2.75 million), and had kept the spot it until 2020. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. tourists came in first in 2021 and 2022. But in 2023, Japanese tourists topped the list. In particular, a recent surge in South Korean tourists to Japan has been driven by a weaker Japanese yen.
South Korean tourists were the largest group of foreign visitors to Japan last year. Of the 25.07 million tourists who visited Japan in 2023, 6.96 million were from South Korea, accounting for 27.8 percent. South Korea was followed by Taiwan (4.20 million), China (2.43 million), Hong Kong (2.11 million), and the United States (2.05 million). The number of South Korean tourists to Japan was three times the number of Japanese tourists to South Korea.
This increase in tourists between the two countries is largely attributed to the expansion of air routes between the two countries as they lifted many entry restrictions put after the outbreak of COVID-19. Some analysts also attribute an improvement in bilateral relations after a summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo in March 2023. The rise in the number of Japanese visitors to South Korea is also attributed to the resurgence of the Korean Wave amid expanded exchanges.