TOKYO, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The number of foreign visitors to Japan in January amounted to 2,689,400, hitting a record high for the month, official statistics revealed Wednesday.

The number increased by 7.5 percent from a year earlier as Japan's visa requirements were relaxed for Chinese tourists, according to the data released by the Japan Tourism Agency.

The number of visitors from South Korea was the largest with 779,400, down 3 percent compared to a year earlier.

The number of visitors from the Chinese mainland increased by 19.3 percent to reach 754,400, ranking the second.

Starting from January, Japan relaxed visa rules for Chinese citizens, who increasingly tend to travel independently instead of joining tour groups.

Hiroshi Tabata, commissioner of the agency, said that the influence of a series of natural disasters in Japan last year had been dwindling, but the growth of tourism has not fully recovered the levels in the first half of 2018.

Tabata also said that the figure of visitors from Asian countries celebrating the Lunar New Year increased about 20 percent compared to last year.