Local media reports this week quoted tourism minister Keiichi Ishii as saying that foreign visitors spent an estimated ¥3.5 trillion (£21 billion/$30 billion/€27 billion) in Japan last year.

This constituted a giant 72 per cent leap from the ¥2.03 trillion (£12 billion/$17 billion/€16 billion) recorded in 2014, itself the previous high.

The number of foreign visitors is also on a steep upward trend and is thought to have reached well over 19 million in 2015, compared with just 13.4 million the previous year.

Besides the country’s many attractions, the sector appears to be reaping the benefits of currency fluctuations which have made Tokyo and other cities appear markedly less expensive for visitors from a range of countries than has been the case in the past.

The reports said the Japanese Government had set a target of annual spending of ¥4 trillion (£24 billion/$34 billion/€31 billion) by foreign tourists and a total of 20 million visitors.

Given that spending has jumped to within sight of this goal, they said a new target was expected to be set by the end of March.

The extensive global media exposure generated by the Olympics is itself widely recognised as a boost to tourism in host-cities in the years following the Games.

Should that pattern be replicated in Japan, then it seems the country can anticipate strong growth in the sector over the better part of a decade.