Japan will work to attract more European tourists in fiscal 2004, an annual government report on tourism said Tuesday.

The tourism white paper said Japan will continue trying in the current fiscal year that started April 1, to garner more tourists from China, South Korea and the United States. In addition, Japan will increase efforts to attract tourists from European countries such as Britain, France and Germany.

The government will focus on using media to highlight Japanese attractions and on setting up more signs written in foreign languages, the report said.

Japan is ratcheting up efforts to realize the goal of drawing 10 million foreign visitors by 2010.

In 2003, 5.21 million foreign tourists traveled to Japan, down 30,000 from 2002. The paper said the decrease was due to the impact of the SARS epidemic.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2004)