Chinese New Year 2014 in Kobe Chinatown. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons)
After the Japanese embassy in China released record visa application figures at the start of February, due to the influx of paperwork from Chinese tourists looking to head further eastward during the Spring Festival holiday period, news from the Chinese New Year celebrations in the Japanese city of Kobe adds an extra dimension to the ongoing relationship between the two Asian nations.
The data is far from meek, as it was estimated that approximately 15,000 visitors walked through Kobe Chinatown on a daily basis during the first four days of the new year.
While the travel itineraries of scores of Chinese revelers expecting to be outside their native nation during the week-long holiday would suggest that many of Kobe's visitors were visitors from the mainland, a significant portion of the 15,000 estimate were Chinese nationals residing in Japan and Japanese citizens with an avid interest in Chinese cultural matters.
For example, the Chinese state-run media spoke with a Japanese woman who had read about the Spring Festival celebrations in a newspaper and was fascinated enough to travel from the neighboring city of Himeji.
Kobe's Nanjing town is the second largest Chinatown in Japan and boasts a history that spans over more than a century.
Japan's largest Chinatown is in Yokohama, and consists of more than 100 Chinese businesses and a Chinese temple.
Meanwhile, Japan's retail sector received a major boost from tourists during the Spring Festival period, as the Hankyu Department Store chain's flagship store in Osaka documented a four-fold rise in duty-free sales.
