Foreign visitors to Japan in February reached a record high number for the month. This was largely due to a surge in travel during the Lunar New Year holidays.

The Japan National Tourism Organization says just about 2.8 million inbound travelers came to the country last month, up 89 percent year on year. That's the most for any month since February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

The Lunar New Year holidays boosted the number of visitors from Asian nations. The extra day at the end of the month was another factor.

South Koreans made up the largest group, at 818,500. Taiwanese followed with 502,200, and Chinese at almost 460,000.

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese outbound travelers was just about 980,000. That's down 36 percent from February 2019, before the pandemic. The weaker yen is likely a major factor behind the slow recovery.