TOKYO, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The number of foreign visitors to Japan in March surged 13.5 percent from a year earlier to a record 3.5 million, official data showed Wednesday.

The total visitor number in the three months from January reached 10.5 million, up 23.1 percent, marking the fastest pace on record to cross 10 million, according to the government-affiliated Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).

Travel demand increased in March with the start of the nation's famed cherry blossom season, which saw record arrivals for any single month among travelers from the United States and Canada, the JNTO said.

By country and region, South Korea led in visitor numbers in March with 691,700 people, up 4.3 percent, followed by China, which posted a 46.2 percent gain to 661,700.

Meanwhile, spending by foreign visitors in the quarter through March amounted to 2.3 trillion yen (about 16.0 billion U.S. dollars), up 28.4 percent from the same period last year, boosted by higher expenditures on food and accommodation, preliminary figures from the Japan Tourism Agency showed. ■