A greater number of Japanese tourists headed for South Korea last month as political relations between the 2 countries have improved. 
The South Korean tourism authorities said about 144,500 Japanese visited South Korea in February. That's up 1.3 % from a year earlier, marking the first increase in 3 and half years, Japan's (NHK World) website reported. 
The authorities said the number of Japanese tourists had continued to decline year-on-year since September 2012, but it showed signs of recovery last October. 
The authorities attribute the improvement to the end of the outbreak of the Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, coronavirus that began last May. 
They also said that Japan-South Korea summit talks in November and a bilateral agreement on the issue of those referred to as comfort women at the year-end contributed to the increase of Japanese travelers to South Korea.

Source: QNA