Japanese Government

Japanese government: The Japan Tourism Agency said estimated foreign tourist arrivals as of Sept 10 exceeded 13.42 million, 10,000 more than for all of 2014, according to Asahi Shimbun. The figure for the first eight months of this year stood at 12.87 million, up 49 percent from the corresponding period of 2014. That figure is just shy of the 20 million the Japanese government is aiming to achieve by 2020 when Tokyo will host the Summer Olympic Games. At this rate, the JTA said the overall number of foreign arrivals will likely hit 19 million in 2015. In January, the central government eased visa requirements for tourists from China. In August alone, the number was 1.81 million, up 63 percent from August 2014, and second only to this past July. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.