Japan welcomed more than 2 million visitors for a third straight month in August, recovering to more than 80% of pre-pandemic levels for the first time, official data showed on Wednesday.

The number of foreign visitors for business and leisure was 2.16 million last month, data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showed.

Visitor arrivals improved to 85.6% of the levels seen in 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19 led to travel curbs around the world. (Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)