More foreign tourists have visited Japan than South Korea during the first five months of this year.
 
According to statistics from the Korea Tourism Organization and the Japan Tourism Agency, five-point-92 million foreign tourists visited South Korea between January and May, compared with seven-point-53 million foreign tourists who visited Japan during the same period.
 
The gap of one-million-610-thousand tourists appears to be due to a 71-percent increase in the number of Chinese tourists to Japan over last year thanks to the weak yen.
 
South Korea is expected to trail Japan in the number of foreign tourists by a wider margin beginning in June due to the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). As a result, Japan is expected to draw more foreign tourists than South Korea for the first time in seven years this year.