The Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) has revealed that last March's earthquake and tsunami had directly resulted in more than 560,000 accommodation cancellations across the country.

Speaking to the country's Upper House of Parliament, JTA's commissioner Hiroshi Mizohata described the impact of the natural disasters on the tourism sector as "extremely serious". Figures show that foreign arrivals during March 2011 were 50 per cent down on 2010 levels.

Many of the country's attractions too are feeling the effect. The drop in inbound tourism numbers has lead to falling attendances while the need to save electricity during evenings - due to damage to the national grid - has caused problems for many companies.

Tokyo's Disneyland reopened to the public on 28 April having closed a day after the tsunami hit and is just one of the country's attractions to have cut opening hours.

Mizohata, however, added that the "worst was over" and that efforts would be made to boost tourism outside the Fukushima Prefecture, where work is still ongoing to avoid a nuclear disaster.

"A vast majority of Japan's regions and their tourism attractions have not been affected by the disasters at all and thus are completely prepared to welcome guests from around the world," he said.

Prior to March's events, tourism was one of the fastest growing sectors of the Japanese economy.

Its economic impact was estimated to be around 5.3 per cent of the total Japanese GDP while the industry employs 4.3 million people - 6.7 per cent of the total employment figure of 64.45 million.