China may once have been Japan's tourism spending powerhouse, but the country's latest visitor spending figures suggest the landscape is changing.
While US travellers spent the most overall in Japan between April and June 2026, they were not the highest spenders on a per-person basis. In fact, that title went to a market many would be unlikely to guess: the Mexicans.
The spending leaderboard
According to the Japan Tourism Agency's latest Survey on Inbound Tourism Spending Trends, international visitors spent approximately 2.5096 trillion yen (US$15.31 billion) during the quarter, up 0.2% year on year despite a reported decline in foreign visitor arrivals.
The US remained Japan's largest source market by total visitor spending, while Taiwan overtook China to move into second place after spending by Chinese visitors fell nearly half compared with the same period last year.
Top 10 markets by total visitor spending (April to June 2026):
US: 384.8 billion yen (US$2.35 billion), up 8.5%
Taiwan: 363.9 billion yen (US$2.22 billion), up 27.9%
China: 259.2 billion yen (US$1.58 billion), down 48.8%
South Korea: 248.9 billion yen (US$1.52 billion), up 12.2%
Hong Kong: 145.2 billion yen (US$886 million), up 7.8%
Australia: 105.9 billion yen (US$646 million), up 5.9%
Thailand: 71.8 billion yen (US$438 million), up 0.3%
UK: 68.7 billion yen (US$419 million), up 0.4%
Canada: 68.1 billion yen (US$415 million), up 10.4%
Singapore: 60 billion yen (US$366 million), up 20.1%
Several other markets also recorded strong growth, including France (57.4 billion yen (US$350 million), up 21.6%), Indonesia (42.2 billion yen (US$257 million), up 40.3%), India (40.7 billion yen (US$248 million), up 43.8%), Malaysia (39.4 billion yen (US$240 million), up 39.8%), the Philippines (45.1 billion yen (US$275 million), up 13.3%) and Russia (27.5 billion yen (US$168 million), up 62.3%).
Who's spending the most?
The average international visitor spent 244,457 yen (US$1,491) during their stay.
UK visitors ranked among the biggest spenders at 456,493 yen (US$2,784) per person, followed by Australians at 426,949 yen (US$2,604) and Americans at 378,547 yen (US$2,309).
But all three were eclipsed by Mexico, whose visitors averaged 514,925 yen (US$3,141) per person, making them the only nationality to spend more than 500,000 yen on average during their trips. The survey also found Mexican leisure travellers remained the biggest spenders, averaging 511,867 yen (US$3,122) each.
Despite leading on per-person spending, Mexico remained one of Japan's smaller source markets, with total visitor expenditure reaching 27.9 billion yen (US$170 million) during the quarter.
Hotels remained the largest spending category, accounting for 37% of total visitor expenditure, although their share declined from 38.5% a year earlier. Shopping accounted for 26.8%, followed by food and beverages at 21.7%, domestic transport at 10.1% and entertainment services at 4.3%.