Singaporeans Spent ¥373,000 Per Trip in Japan Last Quarter — Here's Where Every Yen Went

• Singaporean visitors to Japan spent an average of ¥373,312 per trip in Q4 2025 — the highest quarterly per-visitor spend on record. At current exchange rates, that is approximately SGD $3,200 per person, per trip. The weak yen is not just attracting more Singaporeans to Japan; it is getting them to spend dramatically more when they arrive.
• For the first time in the dataset, shopping (¥142,735) surpassed accommodation (¥135,667) as the single largest spending category in Q4 2025. Singaporeans effectively turned Japan into the world's largest luxury outlet mall in the October–December quarter — and hotels caught most of the upgrade spending that came with it.
• The 2022-to-2024 annual spending trend shows a more complex picture than the headline growth suggests: total per-visitor spend barely moved between 2023 (¥280,422) and 2024 (¥278,958). The explosion in 2025 quarterly figures is new, driven primarily by exchange rate dynamics and a shift toward higher-end accommodation and premium retail.
• Accommodation consistently represents 35–40% of total Singapore visitor spend in Japan — making it the single most stable revenue line for Japanese hotels across all seasons and currency environments. Even in Q3 2025 (the weakest quarter at ¥208,367 total), accommodation held at ¥87,363 — only 19% below the Q4 peak.
• Food spending by Singaporean visitors has grown every year from 2022 (¥55,332) to 2024 (¥65,855) — a 19% increase over the period, outpacing the growth in accommodation and shopping. This signals a premiumisation trend in dining: Singaporeans in Japan are spending more on restaurants, not just more nights in hotels.

¥373,000 a Trip: Singapore Just Set the Bar for Japan Inbound Spending

There is a number buried in Japan Tourism Agency expenditure data that every revenue manager in the Japan hotel market should have flagged by now: Singaporean visitors spent an average of ¥373,312 per person per trip in Q4 2025.

That is not per night. That is not for a couple. That is per individual visitor, for the trip.

At a USD/JPY rate of approximately 153 and SGD/JPY of around 113, that translates to roughly SGD $3,300 per person — or about USD $2,440 — for a single Japan trip. For a couple, the total outlay approaches SGD $6,600 before the flight is booked.

This is not the spending profile of a budget tourism market. Singapore has become one of the most commercially valuable visitor nationalities in Japan — and the data shows exactly where that money goes, and why hotel operators in Japan should be paying close attention.

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The Year-on-Year Picture: Flat for Two Years, Then It Exploded

The 2023-to-2024 flat line is worth pausing on. Per-visitor spending from Singapore barely moved between the two years — ¥280,422 to ¥278,958, a 0.5% decline. This happened even as Singapore visitor volumes to Japan rose sharply. When volume grows but per-visitor spend stays flat, you are adding visitors who are spending less per trip than your existing visitor base — a mix-shift effect that holds down the headline number.

Then 2025 hits, and the quarterly data tells a completely different story. Q1 2025 (¥308,641) was already 10% above the 2024 annual average. Q4 2025 (¥373,312) is 34% above it. Something structural changed.

That structural change is the yen.

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The Yen Effect: Singapore's Purchasing Power Surge

The SGD/JPY exchange rate has been the defining macro factor for Singapore travel to Japan since 2022. From a pre-COVID level of approximately 80–82 JPY per SGD, the rate moved progressively weaker for the yen through 2023–2024 and held at historically weak levels into 2025.

For a Singaporean traveller, a weaker yen means that every SGD spent in Japan buys more — more hotel nights, more shopping, more dining. The data reflects this precisely:

Shopping is the most exchange-rate-sensitive category. In 2024 (annual average), Singaporeans spent ¥75,592 on shopping — 27% of total spend. In Q4 2025, shopping jumped to ¥142,735 — 38% of total spend, and for the first time in the dataset, the largest single spending category, surpassing accommodation.

The Q4 shopping number — ¥142,735 per person — is extraordinary. October through December in Japan captures several commercial events that amplify this: end-of-year department store sales, limited-edition seasonal releases, and the cultural moment of coming to Japan before New Year. When you add a yen that is 30–40% weaker than its long-run average, you get Singaporeans treating Japan as the world's best-value luxury shopping destination.

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The Stable Engine: Accommodation

While shopping is the volatile, exchange-rate-driven category that makes headlines, accommodation is the reliable revenue line for hotels targeting Singaporean guests.

Accommodation spend from Singapore visitors has held between ¥87,000 and ¥136,000 across all quarters — a relatively tight band even as total spend swings dramatically. The hotel category absorbs a consistent 33–42% of every Singapore visitor's Japan budget regardless of whether the yen is strong or weak, summer or winter.

This consistency has a practical implication: Singaporean guests are not rate-sensitive in the way that short-haul budget travellers are. They are budgeting a fixed accommodation allocation as a share of a larger trip budget, and the absolute JPY cost of a hotel night that feels expensive in SGD terms is lower than they have experienced in years. Premium hotel product in Japan — at current exchange rates — feels like relative value to a Singapore traveller who is used to paying SGD $350–500 per night for comparable quality in Singapore.

The accommodation spend uptick in Q4 2025 (¥135,667) aligns with anecdotal evidence of Singaporean visitors trading up from mid-market to upper-upscale and luxury properties. When the yen is weak and you are already spending ¥143k on shopping, upgrading from a ¥25,000/night business hotel to a ¥40,000/night upper-upscale property feels trivial.

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Food: The Steadily Growing Spend

If shopping is the volatile category and accommodation is the stable one, food is the one quietly growing every year — and it has significant implications for how Japanese hotel F&B should be positioned toward the Singapore market.

Three consecutive years of ~9% annual growth in food spending. The 2025 Q1 figure (¥82,649) — covering January to March, which includes Lunar New Year — suggests the 2025 full-year food spend will be another step change higher.

Singapore has one of the world's most food-sophisticated traveller bases. The city produces a disproportionate number of serious food tourists — travellers who plan itineraries around restaurant bookings, who seek out the 3rd-generation ramen shop in a Sapporo backstreet, and who are willing to queue for the standing sushi counter that has no English menu. Japan is the world's best food destination for this traveller profile, and the weak yen is not making them eat more cheaply — it is getting them to eat at the next tier up.

Hotel operators should note: the hotel F&B revenue opportunity from Singaporean guests is larger than the spend data suggests, because the food category is predominantly capturing off-property dining. The guest who spends ¥80,000+ on food in Japan is not doing it at the hotel buffet — unless the hotel has made a serious commitment to F&B quality that competes with independent restaurants. This is precisely why upper-upscale and luxury hotels in major Japan destinations have been investing in destination dining concepts over the past three years.

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The Seasonal Gap: Q3 is the Soft Spot

The Q3 figure (July–September) is notably the lowest in 2025 across all categories. This is not surprising: Japanese summer is physically demanding for travellers accustomed to Singapore's climate-controlled urban environment, and the extreme heat of 2024 and 2025 has been well-documented across Japanese media. Q3 is also school holiday season in Singapore — family travellers take more value-conscious trips, pulling down per-person averages.

The practical hotel implication: Singapore-origin demand in Japan is structurally weaker in Q3 than any other quarter. Revenue managers targeting Singapore corporate and leisure segments should not expect the summer months to carry the same yield premium as spring (Q1: cherry blossom, Lunar New Year) or autumn/winter (Q4: foliage, shopping, New Year preparations).

Q2 (¥258,991) sits in the middle — the post-sakura period captures some Singapore school holiday travel in June, but lacks the marquee events that drive Q1 and Q4 premiums.

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What This Means for Revenue Management

The Singapore visitor spending profile has several direct implications for hotels in Japan's major tourism markets:

1. Singapore guests are rate-tolerant at the upper end. A visitor spending ¥373,000 per trip — of which ¥135,000 is accommodation — is not choosing a hotel based on whether the rate is ¥28,000 or ¥33,000 per night. They are choosing based on brand, product quality, location, and F&B reputation. Revenue managers who are holding back on Singapore-period rate levels out of concern for price resistance are leaving yield on the table.

2. Q4 is the must-win quarter for the Singapore segment. The Q4 shopping surge also lifts accommodation spend to its annual peak. Properties in major shopping corridors (Ginza, Shinjuku, Osaka's Shinsaibashi, Kyoto's Kawaramachi) should be setting their Q4 ceiling rates with Singapore and other high-spending Southeast Asian markets in mind — these are not rate-sensitive travellers in a season where they are already in maximum-spend mode.

3. The food budget signals F&B revenue opportunity. Singaporeans spending ¥65,000–¥83,000 on food per trip are food-driven travellers. Hotels that position their own restaurants and bars as genuine culinary destinations — not just convenience options — have a meaningful opportunity to capture a share of this spend rather than watching it walk out the door to independent restaurants.

4. Monitor the exchange rate, not the market. The Singapore visitor spend data is fundamentally an exchange rate story. If the JPY strengthens materially against the SGD, expect per-visitor shopping spend to compress sharply. Accommodation spend will hold better — it is less discretionary — but total revenue per Singapore guest will decline. Rate-setting strategies for Singapore-facing hotel segments should be built with exchange rate scenarios in mind.

Data source: Japan Tourism Agency (観光庁) Visitor Expenditure Survey. Figures represent per-visitor per-trip expenditure in Japanese Yen for Singapore-nationality visitors. Annual figures cover January–December. Quarterly breakdowns reflect expenditure survey waves. Exchange rate conversions are approximate based on prevailing SGD/JPY rates at time of publication.