Taiwan overtakes China as Japan's top-spending visitor nationality

Foreign visitors spent ¥2.34 trillion in Japan in the first quarter of 2026, up 2.5% on the same period a year earlier, according to the Japan Tourism Agency's inbound consumption survey, published 15 April. Shopping (買物代), the single category floortok's readers care most about, accounted for ¥589.5 billion of that, or 25.2% of the total, second only to accommodation's 36.7% share.

That shopping share is actually smaller than it was a year earlier, when it stood at 29.4% (¥671.3 billion) of a slightly smaller total. Accommodation, dining, transport and paid entertainment all grew their share instead, a sign that, at the aggregate level at least, visitors are spreading their money further across the trip rather than concentrating it at the till.

The country doing the spending has changed

The bigger shift is in who is behind the numbers. Taiwan was the top-spending nationality in the first quarter of 2026, with visitors from the island spending ¥388.4 billion, up 22.5% on the year, overtaking China, which topped the same ranking a year earlier with ¥547.8 billion. China's total spending in Japan fell to ¥271.5 billion in the same quarter, down 50.4% year on year, dropping it to third place behind South Korea (¥318.2 billion, up 12.7%).

Shopping specifically tells the same story even more sharply. Taiwanese visitors spent ¥129.7 billion on shopping alone in the quarter, comfortably the largest shopping bill of any nationality and about 46% more than China's ¥89.0 billion, even though China's total spending base is still larger than most other markets. Shopping also makes up a bigger share of Taiwan's own spending, roughly a third of its total, than the survey average, consistent with Taiwan's outsized presence at Ginza's and Shinsaibashi's tax-free counters.

What this means for the floor

For anyone allocating stock, staff or clienteling budget to a Japan flagship, the practical read is that the visitor to plan around is no longer reflexively Chinese. Average spending per visitor was essentially flat over the year, ¥221,363, down 0.6%, while the number of general, non-cruise visitors rose 3.4%, so this quarter's growth was a headcount story, not a bigger-basket one. The country mix behind that headcount has moved decisively toward Taiwan and South Korea even as China's own total spending fell by half.

The read to watch is whether that Chinese pull-back is a one-off comparison effect or a genuine structural shift. Either way, a shopping floor built entirely around a single nationality's habits and calendar now looks a riskier bet than one built around a broader mix weighted more toward Taiwan and South Korea.

The discount runs deeper in yuan and euros

There is a currency twist beneath the nationality shift. Even as China's total spending in Japan halved, the buying power of the yuan there kept climbing, because the yen has fallen faster against the Chinese yuan — and the euro — than against the US dollar. On the Federal Reserve's monthly averages, since January 2024 the yuan has gone from buying ¥20.4 to ¥23.7 and the euro from ¥159 to ¥185 — gains of about 16% each — against roughly 10% for the dollar (¥146 to ¥161). In plain terms, the same ¥100,000 purchase that cost a Chinese shopper about 4,900 yuan in early 2024 now costs roughly 4,200, about 14% cheaper, with a near-identical saving in euros — versus a 9% discount for an American paying in dollars. So this quarter's Chinese retreat was not a story of weaker purchasing power at the till; if anything, the discount facing Chinese visitors deepened.

For anyone planning a floor's mix, that is the subtlety beneath the ranking: the euro and yuan now stretch further in Japan than the dollar does. The question is no longer only which nationalities are arriving in greater numbers, but how much more each one's money will buy once it is through the door.