It is cheaper to travel to Japan right now compared to Singapore…

Why is it that suddenly in the past 2 years so many Indians have been going to Japan?

What did the Japanese government do to create this hype that back in 2019, the number of Indians traveling to Japan were 175k...

By 2024, that number jumped by 40% to 233k...

And by 2025, it jumped further by 35% growth in a year to 315k...

Now there are three broad reasons for this...

👉🏻 1/ Back in 2019, the Japanese Yen was worth 66 Paise... which fell by almost 20% in 2024 to 54 paise...

So something that cost you Rs 1000 to buy in Japan in 2019 became Rs 800 by 2024... everything from hotels, to food, to trains was cheaper by 20%

And Japan was falling faster than the Rupee compared to the USD and EUR and GBP because Japan was lending money at almost 0%, which people would borrow and put into the US markets and bonds to earn over 5%...

This Yen Carry Trade was leading to depletion in the value of the Yen... because all that borrowed Yen would have to be sold in the forex market to convert to Dollars. That selling kept eroding the value.

Even now in 2026, when the Yen is back to its previous exchange rate of 60 paise, it's still 10% cheaper than 2019... and by comparison all other currencies are up

👉🏻 2/ Air India and Japan Airlines started direct routes in 2024 from Delhi, which further brought down the cost of travel as there would not be as many interconnecting flights in between

👉🏻 3/ Non EU passport holders as visitors, which includes Indians, get a 10% discount on consumption tax by buying things in Japan - so shopping is cheaper compared to other countries where tax refund is lower than 10%... and you could get this tax refund instantly at checkout rather than claiming it at the airport

👉🏻 4/ And then of course, the visa process became electronic from 2024, which made it easier to apply and get

Even right now, as flights get expensive because of the oil, and forex more expensive for Indians, the cost per day for a traveler in Japan can be cheaper by 15-30% than the cost per day in Singapore for an equivalent experience.

The Bank of Japan is now increasing rates, which is why the Yen rates are going up now.

Regardless, are you planning?