Passengers are seen with their luggage at Fukuoka Airport on Dec. 25, 2021. (Mainichi/Yoshiyuki Hirakawa)

       FUKUOKA -- Japan's holiday season got underway in earnest on Dec. 25, with people going to their hometowns and on trips for the year-end and New Year period.

       At Fukuoka Airport, which was almost empty the same time in 2020 due to many refraining from travel to prevent the coronavirus spreading, families with their luggage were seen here and there, with some expressing joy at reuniting with relatives for the first time in a long while.

       But community transmission of the coronavirus's omicron variant has been found in many parts of Japan, and there are growing fears of a possible sixth wave of virus infections.

       A 39-year-old office worker who arrived on a flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport said she was visiting her parents' home in Onojo, Fukuoka Prefecture, with the three other members of her family.

       "It's my first homecoming in two and a half years," she said, adding, "I haven't been able to show my eldest daughter to my parents since she was less than a year old. My father is older, and my parents were worried about me visiting from Tokyo, but I've come back while I can when there are fewer infections." She continued, "I will try to have as little contact with others as possible, and spend the time just with family at my parents' place."

       According to the airport's operator Fukuoka International Airport Co., the number of passengers arriving on domestic flights at Fukuoka Airport between Dec. 25 and Jan. 4 was some 246,000 -- around 1.4 times higher than the last year-end, New Year holiday season. The figure for the departures in the same period this season was some 228,000 -- a roughly 1.5-times increase.

       Meanwhile, according to Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu), reserved seat bookings on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line between Dec. 28 and Jan. 5 have shot up to around 2.3 times from the corresponding period last season.

       Compared to the 2019 holiday season that preceded the coronavirus's first outbreak in Japan, domestic flight passenger numbers at the airport have returned to a little over 80% of the pre-pandemic level, while it is over 60% for the shinkansen line.

       Dec. 29 has the highest number of reservations for arrivals at Fukuoka Airport and outbound Kyushu Shinkansen Line services, while Jan. 3 does for airport departures and inbound shinkansen services.

       (Japanese original by Rokuhei Sato, Kyushu News Department)

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