Malaysian Visitors To Japan Increase

GEORGE TOWN (Penang, Malaysia), Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysian visitors to Japan showed an encouraging trend with 142,300 for the period January to August this year, said Consul-General of Japan in Malaysia's northern state of Penang, Ryuji Noda. He said the trend showed an increase of 54 per cent against the same period last year, adding that the Japanese government was committed to attract more foreign tourists, including from Malaysia. "About 176,000 Malaysian tourists visited Japan in 2013, a 35.6 per cent increase from 2012 while some 513,000 Japanese visited Malaysia last year. Both numbers are all-time high," he said. Noda said the Japanese government and the private sector were committed to attract 20 million foreign tourists per year by 2020 from less than 10 million currently. He said most foreign visitors did not prefer August due to hot and humid weather in Japan, adding that Japan was more popular during winter and spring because of the snow and sakura bloom season. Nora said the private and tourism sectors offered more praying rooms for the Muslim tourists in the airports as well as increasing halal restaurants in Japan. "Ten years ago, it was difficult for the Muslims to visit Japan because it was difficult to find halal restaurants as well as mosques. Now, the situation is getting better," he said. On the commendation ceremony, Noda said the Perak Malaysian-Japanese Friendship Society was acknowledged for its outstanding achievements in promoting understanding between Malaysia and Japan as well as strengthening friendly relations between the two countries for more than 30 years. The society has been engaged in a variety of activities on a voluntary basis, not only sharing Japanese culture and language with local people but also promoting Japanese cultural events and supporting Japanese speech contest. --BERNAMA