Visitor arrivals to Japan plunge in Feb

Passers-by are seen on a street in Yokohama's Chinatown on Feb 18, 2020.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan plunged below 1 million in February, less than half of the 2.37 million recorded a year earlier, amid coronavirus fears, immigration authorities said on Friday, dealing a severe blow to the country's economy.

Visitors from China, hit hardest by the outbreak of the virus that causes Covid-19 which was first detected in Wuhan in December, fell sharply, failing to reach 60,000, less than a tenth of the around 658,000 a year earlier, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

On a daily basis, 35,000 foreign nationals entered Japan in February, compared with 85,000 a year ago.

The provisional data were released by the agency during a parliamentary committee session, a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, facing a barrage of criticism for his belated response to the outbreak, unveiled tougher border control measures restricting travel from China and South Korea.

The data gave a glimpse of the potential economic impact of the outbreak, with Japan's tourism sector reliant on Asia. Of total visitors to Japan in 2019, those from China and South Korea accounted for over 40%.

From Monday to the end of March, Japan will ask all travellers from the two Asian countries, including Japanese, to remain quarantined in government-designated facilities for two weeks.

It will also revoke visas already issued to Chinese and South Koreans and suspend a visa-waiver programme covering short stays by tourists from South Korea, Hong Kong and Macau.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato, who is responsible for Japan's quarantine measures, said travellers from China and South Korea would likely be asked to stay in hotels for the designated period.

"It is a request that we are making," he told a parliamentary session, indicating that the measure was not mandatory.

The tourism industry is already bracing for a harder hit.

"If Japanese are also required to stay (in facilities for two weeks), it will reduce travel for business purposes," an official of the Japan Association of Travel Agents said, expressing concern that the movement of people will halt between Japan, and China and South Korea.

Japan's coronavirus quarantine measures have come under intense scrutiny following its decision last month to confine about 3,700 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess cruise ship near Tokyo for 14 days.

The total number of infections topped 1,000 in Japan this week, including around 700 from the vessel. China has recorded over 80,000 cases and South Korea over 6,000.