TOKYO, June 21 (Reuters) - Japan saw a slight decline in visitors in May from the previous month, when a rush of tourists came to see the nation's famous cherry blossoms without COVID-19 restrictions, official data showed on Wednesday.
The number of foreign visitors for business and leisure came in just below 1.9 million last month from a post-pandemic high of 1.95 million in April, the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) said.
Meanwhile, the yen has weakened sharply against other major currencies, making trips to Japan the cheapest in many years.
"Japan has been viewed for a long time as a bucket list country by North American leisure travellers," she said.
"Now that Japan has reopened to tourists and the current exchange rate makes leisure trips less expensive, we think this trend will continue to grow."
Persons:
Jefferies, Mitsuko Miyasako, Kiyo Weiss, Rocky Swift, Varun, Gerry Doyle
Organizations:
Japan National Tourism Organisation, Consumer, J.Front, Air, Thomson
Locations:
TOKYO, Japan, China, Tourism, Osaka, Kyoto, Asia, Pacific, American