Duty-free sales at department stores across Japan totaled 31.3 billion yen ($214 million) in July, surpassing the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 for the same month thanks to the return of individual travelers from mainland China, data by an industry body shows.
The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in February totaled 1,475,300, 88 times higher from the year before, government data show. But while the figures suggest the
Japan has ended its blanket COVID-19 testing of visitors from mainland China as part of an easing of border controls due to travelers making the journey returning a low rate of positive results since late January.