Foreign tourists spend record 4.5 tril. yen in Japan in 2018

Foreign tourists in Japan spent a record-high 4.51 trillion yen ($41.5 billion) in 2018 as the tourism boom continued in the country, government data showed Wednesday.The figure was calculated under a new method with more samples. Under the previous method, their spending rose 8.7 percent to 4.8 trillion yen from 4.42 trillion yen in 2017 for the seventh consecutive year of rise, the Japan Tourism Agency said in a preliminary report.Average spending per person fell 0.9 percent to 152,594 yen in 2018, the agency said.The number of foreign visitors increased 8.7 percent to a record 31.19 mill…READ FULL ARTICLE