Japan's hotels and other accommodation facilities are seeing rapidly rising numbers of guests from abroad.

The number of overnight stays by such visitors was up 7-fold in October from the same month a year earlier.

The Japan Tourism Agency says the number of foreign visitors who stayed at hotels and inns in Japan in March plunged 85.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.18 million.

Agency officials say it was the sharpest fall ever, topping an 81.3-percent fall in April 2011, just after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan.