Time to visit Japan? Weak currency makes it much cheaper

Traveling 5,700 miles from Scotland to Japan for the third time in six years, Martyn Merrilees is struck by how far his budget for the one-month visit is stretching.

“This time’s cheaper,” Merrilees, 20, said in the bustling Tokyo Station. “The yen is more beneficial. I am buying a lot more, mainly clothes and electronics, Apple products and stuff for my camera.”

Merrilees joins a record 9.14 million visitors to Japan in the first six months of 2015 as a more than 30 percent weakening in the yen against the dollar since the end of 2012 makes the nation more affordable.

Foreign tourists spent a record 1.6 trillion yen ($12.9 billion) in the first six months of the year, according to Ministry of…