After almost three and a half years, China lifted its ban on group travel to Japan on Thursday, raising optimism for a full recovery in the country's tourist industry while also raising concerns about over-tourism and a labour shortage in the lodging sector.

About 30% of all foreign visitors to Japan before the COVID-19 outbreak were Chinese tourists.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida voiced optimism for a rise in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan to reporters on that day. We want to sustainably resurrect tourism in our nation, Kishida stated.

Before the epidemic, there were 31.88 million foreign tourists to Japan at its height in 2019, spending a total of 4.8 trillion yen.

Around 9.59 million visitors from the Chinese mainland spent around 1.8 trillion yen that year.