Okinawa Prefecture Visitors’ Bureau 15,399 couples came last year to the prefecture to tie the knot on so called “Resort Wedding” trips, making 2016 the first year that the number exceeded 15,000. It is 1,224 more than the year before and an increase of 8.6%. The number has increased for five consecutive years.

90% of the couples came from areas in Japan, while 1,867 couples came from overseas. Of the foreign couples, 1,065 came from Hong Kong, 550 from Taiwan, 142 from China, and 38 from South Korea.

So called “photo weddings”, which is a wedding without a ceremony or reception, but only a photo session with the couple wearing wedding clothes, are becoming increasingly popular with 31% of domestic and 22% of foreign couples opting for it.

About 20% of foreign couples take advantage of so called “Legal Weddings”. Marriage procedures are quite complicated, especially in Hong Kong, and it is becoming popular to do the legal wedding paperwork here, receive the marriage certificate, and then submit it to authorities in Hong Kong who register the marriage. 141 couples did the legal wedding in Yomitan, 107 in Onna, 60 in Kunigami, 27 in Chatan, 24 in Nago, and 9 in Naha.

It’s estimated that about 237,000 people, including the couples and wedding guests, visited Okinawa to attend the weddings, and they spent at least a total of ¥22.49 billion while here.

By month, October, November, and April are the most popular months for the weddings in that order, while January, August and February are the least popular.

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