The immigration Bureau of Ministry of Justice gave a preliminary figure of Japanese outbound travelers for 2009 which stood at 15,445,530, down 3.4 percent from the year earlier. This is the second lowest level since 2000, next to the year 2003 when the number was 13,296,330 due to SARS outbreak, and is approximately 540,000 fewer than 2008. The Ministry of Justice attributes the doldrums to peo..