TOKYO, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2018 has topped 30 million, the Japan Tourism Agency said on Tuesday.
The agency expected the yearly number to reach around 31 million, surpassing the 2017 record of 28.69 million, according to officials.
Japan's Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Keiichi Ishii said that overseas promotion "paid off" despite a number of natural disasters that hit Japan earlier this year and discouraged foreign tourists from visiting.
The disasters included a 6.7-magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan's northernmost prefecture Hokkaido in September and left more than 40 people dead, and a typhoon in the same month that shut down the Kansai International Airport in Osaka for a week.
In an effort to spur economic growth, the Japanese government has set the goal of attracting 40 million visitors to Japan in the year 2020.
To achieve the goal, the government has taken a number of measures, including easing visa requirements, expanding duty-free programs and allowing private lodging services among others.
