This article examines the fact that the number of Chinese visitors to Japan in January 2020 increased by 22.6 percent year on year to 924,800. While newspapers focused mainly on the decline during the Lunar New Year period, it argues that the truly crucial issue was the large number of travelers who entered Japan before Wuhan was locked down.

March 15, 2020
For January as a whole, the number of Chinese visitors to Japan increased by 22.6 percent from the previous year, reaching 924,800.
This very figure, one may say, is directly related to the spread of the new coronavirus in our country.
The following is from today’s Sankei Shimbun.
Emphasis in the text, apart from the headline, is mine.
Deference to China: A Failure by Both the Government and the Newspapers
Nobuhiko Sakai
Former Professor, Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo
A Rebuke to the Newspapers
On February 19, the Japan Tourism Agency announced the number of foreign visitors to Japan in January, and detailed reports appeared in the morning editions of the newspapers the following day, February 20.
What the newspapers focused on was the decrease in Chinese visitors to Japan during China’s Lunar New Year period, from January 24 to February 2, which was said to have fallen by about 20 percent compared with the previous year.
This was due to the impact of the new coronavirus, and there were concerns that the number of visitors would decline even further from February onward.
However, what we truly had to worry about was the exact opposite.
For January as a whole, the number of Chinese visitors to Japan increased by 22.6 percent from the previous year, reaching 924,800.
The newspapers seemed to feel no threat whatsoever from the total number of visitors in January, but this very figure, one may say, is directly related to the spread of the new coronavirus in our country.
By the way, how many people entered Japan from Wuhan, the epicenter?
According to an article by Masayuki Takada in the Asahi Shimbun on February 1, “Yicai also estimated the number of travelers going abroad from the number of seats on flights departing Wuhan between December 30 of last year and January 22.
The largest number went to Thailand, where, assuming all flights were full, up to 27,000 people visited.
Japan ranked second, with approximately 18,000 people, and Singapore was third, with approximately 11,000.”
Yicai is a Chinese business media outlet.
Since Wuhan was locked down on January 23, a large number of infected people had already entered Japan before that date.
As a result, infected people appeared in Japan as well, including the infection of a sightseeing bus driver and a cluster infection on a yakatabune pleasure boat.
In both cases, the cause was probably contact with tourists from Wuhan in early to mid-January, about two months before now.
However, the figure of 18,000 entrants from Wuhan received almost no attention.
During this period, Japan was mainly concerned with charter flights and the cruise ship, but community transmission must surely have been progressing.
At present, the number of infected people is also increasing in Italy, France, and the United States, and there is a strong suspicion that the source of infection was Chinese tourists during the Lunar New Year period.
Compared with other countries, the Shinzo Abe administration was extremely lax regarding the entry of Chinese nationals.
Even China itself had already begun imposing restrictions on movement, yet it was only on the 9th of this month that Japan finally began strengthening entry restrictions from all of China.
Omission
The media, including newspapers, make a great fuss about this issue every day, but it must be said that, just like the government, they were insensitive to the most important point.
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Nobuhiko Sakai
Born in Kawasaki City in 1943.
Completed the doctoral course at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, the University of Tokyo.
Engaged in the compilation of Dai Nihon Shiryo at the Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo.