TOKYO - Visitor spending in Japan broke an annual record in just nine months, official data showed on Wednesday, demonstrating the economic power of a tourism boom fuelled by the weak yen.

Travellers spent 5.86 trillion yen ($39.27 billion) through September, preliminary figures from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showed. That eclipsed the 5.3 trillion yen spent in all of 2023, a record for any 12-month period.

Tourism spending, classified as an export in national accounts, is poised to become Japan's second-biggest export sector after autos and ahead of electronic components.

The average visitor spent 223,000 yen on their trip, based on the data from July through September. Italians spent the most, followed by Spaniards and Russians

There were 2.87 million visitors in September, down slightly from 2.93 million in August, JNTO data showed.

Arrivals have set new monthly records since February, including 3.29 million in July that was an all-time high for any month.

Through September, 26.88 million tourists have arrived in Japan, already more than the total for 2023 and on pace to break the record of 31.9 million set in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut global borders.

($1 = 149.2400 yen)

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Kirsten Donovan)