The Japan National Tourism Organization says the number of foreign visitors to Japan during the month of March this year was 1,050,500, which is a 22.6% increase over 2013. It is also the highest ever recorded number of foreign tourists for the month of March.

The JNTO also announced that the total number of visitors for the first three months of this year was a record high of 2,874,500 people.

The highest number -- 208,500 -- were tourists from Taiwan. A steady increase of tourists from Southeast Asian nations such as Malaysia was due to relaxed visa requirements, the JNTO said.

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