The number of Chinese tourists who visited Japan in October came to 106,400, down 1.8 percent from the previous year, preliminary estimates released by the Japan National Tourism Organization showed.

The total number of visitors from overseas in October rose 11.0 percent to 727,600, up for the 12th consecutive month, the organization said.

Many Chinese canceled or postponed planned trips to Japan in October possibly because tourism authorities on the mainland may have asked domestic tour agencies to refrain from organizing trips to Japan following the Sept. 7 run-in and collisions involving a Chinese trawler and two Japan Coast Guard cutters trying to evict it from the area.

The collisions, near the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China, led to the skipper's arrest. This triggered bilateral diplomatic tensions.