Blog › 2026-10-07

Japan's quiet months are growing fastest

A summary of an issue of the Japan Off-Peak newsletter. Read the full issue, with method and caveats.

Comparing 2023, 2024 and 2025: foreign visitor nights grew faster in each year's previously quiet months than in its busy months, +19.4% against +1.5% from 2024 to 2025.
The gap between Japan's busiest and quietest month for foreign visitors narrowed from 1.95 times in 2023 to 1.34 times in 2025.
January was among the three quietest months in 32 prefectures in 2024, but only 18 in 2025. Part of that is the Lunar New Year moving into January.
Ski regions run the other way: in Nagano and Hokkaido the growth went to winter.

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