Japan saw its highest monthly number of foreign visitors to date in January, mainly due to a jump in the number of Chinese travelers.



The Japan National Tourism Organization estimates that the country had more than 3.78 million inbound visitors last month. That exceeded about 3.48 million logged in December.



A little over 980,000 people came from China in January, more than double from a year earlier. The Lunar New Year holiday began in the country late last month.



The recovery in traveler numbers from China, following the coronavirus pandemic, had been slow. But the latest figure set a new record for January.



South Korea followed China at about 967,000. More than 593,000 people came from Taiwan, and over 243,000 from Hong Kong.



January also set records for the number of visitors coming from other places, including the United States and Europe.



The tourism organization cited factors for why many Chinese people chose Japan as their destination. It pointed out that in December a deadly aviation accident occurred in South Korea, and in January a Chinese actor temporarily went missing in Thailand.