Age 30-40s, annual income of 30 to 50 million yen… The real image of the “wealthy Chinese” and unexpected ways to enjoy travel to Japan

Business Class” visitors casually fly to Japan several times a year, spending more than 400,000 yen per person for a 2- or 3-night stay.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign visitors to Japan in October totaled 2,516,500, up 0.8% from the same month in 2007. This is the first time that the monthly number of visitors to Japan has exceeded the pre-Corona level since the restrictions on entry into Japan were lifted.

By country, South Korea had the highest number of visitors, with 631,100. On the other hand, China, which had the highest number of visitors before the Corona disaster, had 256,300, and despite the lifting of the ban on group travel to Japan in August and the National Day holiday at the end of September, the number of Chinese tourists remained at a level 35% that of October 2007.

Under the strict travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, Chinese have been holding back on overseas travel, and now that the ban has been lifted after three and a half years, their overseas travel destinations are probably being spread out among Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia, and Japan.”

Flights between China and Japan have begun to return to normal around September, but have not fully returned to pre-Corona levels, partly due to a delay in the recovery of regional flights. I think this is partly to blame.”

Yuan Jing, president of Gyoraku Japan, which has more than 800,000 followers, mainly wealthy Chinese, and is developing an inbound support business by disseminating information about Japan and proposing travel content, explains.

The number of Chinese visitors to Japan has been slow so far. Nevertheless, they are still the main foreign tourists responsible for inbound demand. The wealthy Chinese are particularly significant in increasing inbound spending. According to the Japan Tourism Agency’s “National Survey Results for the July-September period,” China accounted for the largest amount of inbound foreign tourist spending at 282.7 billion yen.

What kind of people are these affluent Chinese, anyway?

The wealthy in China are younger than those in other developed countries, and are mainly in their 30s and 40s. They work in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other large cities, and their employers are major IT and game companies. Their monthly take-home pay is 400,000 to 500,000 yen, but their annual income is probably between 30 and 50 million yen if stock dividends are included. His assets, including real estate, amount to more than 100 million yen.

Among these wealthy individuals, Gyoraku Japan’s followers are particularly interested in Japan. More than half of them have obtained multiple-entry visas for Japan, and many of them are heavy repeat visitors, having visited Japan more than five times.

For example, it takes 2 hours and 40 minutes from Shanghai to Tokyo. From Shanghai to Kyushu is 90 minutes. From the point of view of wealthy people, it does not feel like an overseas trip, but rather a casual visit several times a year for three days and two nights or four days and three nights. When they visit Japan, they generally fly business class.

How much do wealthy Chinese spend per visit to Japan?

“We took this data in ’19, before Corona. According to the data we collected in 2007, the average amount of money spent per visit to Japan by the followers of Gyoraku was 420,000 yen per person, not including airfare. With the current depreciation of the yen, it will certainly exceed 420,000 yen.”