TOKYO - The number of foreign visitors to Japan in January was down 4.9 percent from a year earlier, marking the first year-on-year decline for the month in four years as Chinese tourists stayed away, government data showed on Wednesday.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the latest figure marked the first time since January 2022 that the monthly total dropped below the level of the same month in the previous year.

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The overall decline was largely driven by a 60.7 percent fall in arrivals from China, marking the second consecutive month of contraction, the organization said.