Japan has never seen so many tourists flood into the country so quickly. The yen’s historic collapse, meaning a cheaper traveling experience for those with tourist dollars to spend, coupled with the post-pandemic surge in global tourism, has sparked interest in the nation like never before. More than 14.5 million people arrived in the country in the first five months of this year, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization’s latest figures. That’s 70% up on the same period last year, and on track to beat 2019’s record 31 million visitors.

Foreign visitors learn how to make sushi in a cooking class at Sushi Making Tokyo in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023. The number of foreign visitors in November reached 2.4 million, recovering to roughly the same levels as in the same month in 2019, before the pandemic, with tourists from Singapore, Europe and the US among those pushing the total higher. The island nation — famed for its dining, cleanliness and mix of futuristic and traditional experiences — currently feels more like a low-cost travel haven than one of the world’s most advanced economies, thanks to extraordinary currency exchange rates. The yen has been stuck at a three-decade low in recent months, making everything from an omakase sushi lunch to premium A5 wagyu steak much more affordable. Here are six charts to unpack Japan’s unprecedented travel boom. Photographer: Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg.

Japan welcomed more than 3 million visitors for a third straight month in May, with the majority coming from South Korea, China and Taiwan. More than a million Americans made the long-haul trip from the US in the first five months of the year — a 50% jump on the same period in 2019.

Hotel prices in Japan are rising, but they’re still cheaper than their global peers. The weak yen and the hugely popular cherry blossom season lifted national hotel prices to a near-three decade high in March. The average daily room rate was about ¥20,986 ($136), the highest level since 1997, according to CoStar Group. While Tokyo’s rate was higher, sitting at an average of $177 for the year ending March 2024, the city was a bargain compared to the likes of New York, where the average room cost more than $300 a night, or Singapore, where rates exceeded $250.

More tourists means more transport. Some 37 million flights are scheduled to take off globally this year, according to industry data compiled by BloombergNEF. And a million of those are expected to have landed in Japan by the end of 2024. That’s not been all good news for Japan, with the spiraling number of tourists putting a major strain on local transport and infrastructure.

So, if you’re planning a trip soon, you’re certainly unlikely to be alone. But if you’re hunting for a bargain it could be the perfect moment to take that trip of a lifetime. Kimono-clad visitors take a selfie photograph in Kyoto, Japan, on Saturday, April 13, 2024. The yen dropped to a three-decade low against the dollar this week on prospects that despite the BOJ’s policy shift, yield differentials will remain wide between Japan and the US.