japan tourism economy

Japan's hospitality and tourism industry is recovering, but there are challenges

Japan's readiness to receive tourists is not keeping pace with the speed of the recovery of visitor numbers. Image:  Unsplash/Sayaka Ganz

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Naoko Kutty

Naoko tochibayashi.

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Travel and Tourism is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:, travel and tourism.

Listen to the article

• Japan's hospitality and tourism sector is recovering in earnest after reopening its border to foreign visitors and lifting mask rules after COVID-19.
• As a result, March saw visitor numbers reach nearly 2 million, equivalent to about two-thirds of tourist figures for the same month in 2019.
• Japan will need to adapt to avoid 'overtourism' and also address post-pandemic labour shortages in both hospitality and tourism.

The Japanese hospitality and tourism industry is beginning to recover in earnest after being badly hit by COVID-19.

In October 2022, Japan lifted the ceiling on the number of foreign tourists entering the country as well as the ban on the entry of individual foreign travellers, thereby significantly easing its pandemic border control measures. Furthermore, as of March this year, the rule to wear masks, both indoors and outdoors, is now left to individual discretion.

This was a tailwind, and the number of visitors to Japan in the same month quickly recovered to 1,827,500 – a figure is equivalent to 66% of the pre-pandemic March 2019 tally and 27.5 times higher than in March 2022.

By country/region, the largest number of visitors to Japan in March came from South Korea with 466,800 – or 79.7% of the figure for March 2019; followed by Taiwan with 278,900; the United States with 203,000, and Hong Kong with 144,900. In addition, since Japan eased travel restrictions from China on March 1, the number of travellers from the country almost doubled to 75,000 in February.

Takahide Kiuchi, Executive Economist at Nomura Research Institute, forecasts that "inbound demand for the year 2023 will be JPY 4,958 billion (about $36.7 billion), which could quickly surpass the JPY 4,813.5 billion (about $35.7 billion) inbound demand in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic”.

However, while Japan's economy is being revitalized in earnest by inbound consumption – boosted in part by the record low yen, which makes Japan an attractive destination for foreign tourists – the country is facing a noticeable challenge as its readiness to receive tourists is not keeping pace with the speed of the recovery in visitor numbers.

Severe labour shortages in hospitality

The hospitality and restaurant industries are in a particularly tight spot, unable to cope with the resurgence of inbound tourism.

According to a January survey released by Teikoku Databank, the percentage of companies feeling a labour shortage (non-permanent employees) amounted to 81.8% for inns and hotels and 80.4% for restaurants. Of all sectors, these two industries in particular are experiencing an outstanding labour shortage, with the percentage for inns/hotels at an all-time high.

Many in the hospitality and restaurant sectors have been forced to reduce their workforce and curtail new hiring due to closures, shorter hours and poor performance caused by the spread of COVID-19, and many employees have moved on to other jobs. The fact it is not easy to bring back staff once they have left the industry is the main reason for the serious labour shortage.

Have you read?

Japan has eased travel restrictions - but will the tourism sector bounce back, the number of tourists that visit japan has increased by more than 20 million in five years, saving forests to protect coastal ecosystems: japan sets historic example.

Japanese industry has been trying to solve labour shortages by accepting foreign workers. The tourism sector has relied heavily on part-time jobs for foreign students. According to data from the Japan Student Services Organization in 2021, the hospitality and restaurant industries accounted for nearly 40% of all part-time jobs for foreign students. However, foreign student part-time workers have completely disappeared since the pandemic.

Furthermore, the depreciation of the yen, which has been progressing since the second half of last year, has significantly lowered wages in Japan from the perspective of other countries. Despite overcoming the COVID-19 crisis and embarking on a path of economic recovery, Japan is no longer attractive as a country to go to as a migrant worker, and it is no longer possible to expect to attract foreign staff .

In a bid to address the problem in hospitality, hotel operations are being reformed by using digital technology to increase efficiency. JTB, a major Japanese travel agency, has developed a platform that links its core system with digital tools such as ATMs to save labour in check-out and other operations, and is now offering the system to hotels.

Tokyu Hotels, which operates 45 hotels in Japan, has also introduced NEC's Smart Hospitality Service , which enables automatic check-in using facial recognition and QR codes, at 39 of its hotels nationwide. Users can check in by simply holding up their face to a tablet terminal at the front desk if they have registered their guest information and photo in advance – making operations more efficient.

Countermeasures against ‘overtourism’

Overtourism has long been a challenge for the Japanese travel industry, and local residents in key tourist areas have suffered from issues including crowding, traffic congestion, rubbish and noise. The ability to diversify the times and areas visited by tourists is key to preventing overtourism, while allowing the tourism industry to gain momentum for a resurgence.

According to a Japan Tourism Agency survey, most people travel on holidays, including major national holidays, and only 16.5% of travel volume occurs on weekdays , which account for 70% of the annual number of days.

As such, the government is working to diversify travel demand by increasing the amount of coupons granted for weekday travel in its nationwide travel support programme. Now that the spread of teleworking has made it feasible to combine work and travel on weekdays, the creation of new incentives, such as work holidays, could also help to balance out travel demand.

Diversification of tourist destinations is another important issue. Pre-pandemic, the occupancy rate of accommodation facilities in Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka – where tourists are concentrated – rose to nearly 80%, and the negative effects of overtourism were being called out.

However, in many prefectures located along the typical tourist routes for foreign visitors, the occupancy rate of accommodation facilities was less than 50%, resulting in regional differences. In the future, it will be important to bridge these regional differences by promoting Japan's diverse destinations, and to increase the number of people visiting non-representative tourist destinations by attracting repeat visitors.

Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021: Rebuilding for a Sustainable and Resilient Future

Looking to a new future for japan tourism.

The World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021: Rebuilding for a Sustainable and Resilient Future ranked Japan first in the development index ranking due to the speed with which the travel and tourism industry has recovered from the devastation caused by the pandemic.

Assuming that the travel and tourism industry will play an important role in global economic and social development, the report emphasizes that investment in the drivers of the industry’s development will be crucial in the future.

Meanwhile, Atsushi Takahashi of JR East Japan Planning Inc sounded an alarm bell on the past Japanese approach to tourism and instead urged a new way of thinking. “We have long made decisions based on intuition, experience and assumptions. We have been making decisions for a long time without looking at data,” he said.

“The original marketing is to choose the best solution at the time from multiple hypotheses that emerge depending on how the data is viewed and interpreted. However, in the field of tourism, I feel that this is still too shallow.”

His observations stress his belief that data-based initiatives in Japan's tourism industry are also essential to solving issues facing the sector today, as well to providing new forms of tourism services altogether.

Pre-pandemic, China ranked first in the number of foreign visitors to Japan by nationality and region, accounting for a 25.6% share . Currently, there are restrictions on issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals, but if these restrictions are lifted in the future, the number of visitors from China is expected to increase rapidly.

In addition, the Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai – which will be held for six months and centre around the theme of 'Designing Future Society for Our Lives' – is expected to attract 3.5 million foreign tourists.

With these expected surges in visitor numbers, the question will be how Japan can solve the problems facing hospitality and tourism, while also creating and providing services that place value on new forms of tourism.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:

The agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;} weekly.

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

.chakra .wef-1dtnjt5{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;} More on Travel and Tourism .chakra .wef-nr1rr4{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;white-space:normal;vertical-align:middle;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:0.75rem;border-radius:0.25rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;line-height:1.2;-webkit-letter-spacing:1.25px;-moz-letter-spacing:1.25px;-ms-letter-spacing:1.25px;letter-spacing:1.25px;background:none;padding:0px;color:#B3B3B3;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;}@media screen and (min-width:37.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:0.875rem;}}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:1rem;}} See all

How Japan is attracting digital nomads to shape local economies and innovation

Naoko Tochibayashi and Naoko Kutty

March 28, 2024

Turning tourism into development: Mitigating risks and leveraging heritage assets

Abeer Al Akel and Maimunah Mohd Sharif

February 15, 2024

Buses are key to fuelling Indian women's economic success. Here's why

Priya Singh

February 8, 2024

These are the world’s most powerful passports to have in 2024

Thea de Gallier

January 31, 2024

These are the world’s 9 most powerful passports in 2024

South Korea is launching a special visa for K-pop lovers

Japanese Economic Trend

Japan economic activity covering production, distribution, consumption and trade of goods and services including GDP Growth Rate and Exchange Rate.

• The Japanese government offered the assessment in its Monthly Economic Report for March 2024 that "The Japanese economy is recovering at a moderate pace, although it recently appears to be pausing in part. Concerning short-term prospects, the economy is expected to continue recovering at a moderate pace with the improving employment and income situation, supported by the effects of the policies. However, slowing down of overseas economies is downside risk of the Japanese economy, including the effects of global monetary tightening and the concern about the prospect of the Chinese economy. Also, full attention should be given to price increases, the situation in the Middle East and fluctuations in the financial and capital markets. In addition, full attention should be given to the economic impact of the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake.

GDP Growth Rate 08 March 2024

Real GDP Growth

QOQ   +0.7 Points

Annualized Rate

QOQ   +2.9points

3.1 Gross Domestic Product: Quarter on Quarter (Real/Seasonally Adjusted)

Source : Cabinet Office "National Economic Accounting"

Unemployment Rate 10 April 2024

Unemployment Rate

MOM   +0.2 Points

Unemployment

1.77 million

MOM   +14 million

3.2 Unemployment Rate

Source : Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications "Labour Force Survey" *Unemployed rate are seasonally adjusted series and unemployed person are original series.

Exchange Rate 10 April 2024

3.3 japanese yen exchange rate (monthly-average).

Mar 2024 (Monthly-Average)

USD/JPY ＝ 149.67

Source : Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ "Exchange Quotations"

EUR/JPY ＝ 162.74

CNY/JPY ＝ 20.74

100KRW/JPY ＝ 11.26

CPI 10 April 2024

MOM   +0.0 Points

3.4 Consumer Price Index

Source : Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications index, base year: 2020

Index related to consuming activities 10 April 2024

3.5 consumption expenditure per household　 annual.

Source : Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications "Family Income and Expenditure Survey" *Yearly Average of Monthly Income and Expenditure per Household - Workers' households containing over 2 adults (2000～2016) *The data is including agricultural, forestry and fisheries households.

3.6 Consumption expenditures on Travel & Communication　 Annual

3.7 sales of department stores (nationwide).

Source : Japan Department Stores Association

3.8 Wholesale Price of Unleaded Gasoline by Month (National Average)

Source : Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Wholesale price for major oil companies' gas station (Without Consumption Tax)

• Account details
• Newsletters
• Group subscription

Japan tourism after COVID: Industry aims for more sustainable boom

After Abe-era surge overwhelmed some areas, can Kishida spread the wealth?

HACHINOHE, Japan -- The city of Hachinohe, less than three hours north of Tokyo by bullet train, has plenty for visitors to explore.

Old alleyways are packed with cozy bars and restaurants. Meadows overlook the rugged Pacific shoreline. A hilltop Shinto shrine sits in the middle of a breeding ground for thousands of black-tailed gulls.

Visitors to Japan decrease even after reopening to tourists

Japan's tourism reboot begins with a whimper, as tourists return, japan looks to open doors even more, as borders reopen, is japan ready for tourism's pitfalls, japan gets more than it bargained for with tourist boom, japan needs to switch to sustainable tourism from numbers game, asean tourism on the road to business as usual, cambodia, vietnam top covid recovery index as asia fears new waves, kishida vows to 'build on abe's accomplishments' after election win, latest on asia insight, china's gen z turns frugal as economy doubts linger, japan's expo 2025: osaka triumph or billion-dollar folly, south korea's working class unmoved by election campaign 'lip service', sponsored content, about sponsored content this content was commissioned by nikkei's global business bureau..

Nikkei Asian Review, now known as Nikkei Asia, will be the voice of the Asian Century.

Celebrate our next chapter Free access for everyone - Sep. 30

Can inbound tourism fuel Japan’s economic growth?

Japan’s inbound tourism grew by 33 percent a year from 2011 to 2015—among the fastest rates in the world. Yet tourism still represents just 0.5 percent of the country’s GDP, significantly lower than for popular Asian destinations such as Thailand (10.4 percent) and developed countries such as France (2.4 percent) and the United States (1.3 percent). The biggest problems? Too few non-Asian international visitors; too many tourists concentrating on the major cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo; and significant capacity constraints with regard to accommodation and transportation.

Japan’s leaders are aware of the problem, as well as the opportunity. Recognizing that inbound tourism could be a powerful economic engine, they have set an aspirational target to double annual inbound tourism to 40.0 million visitors in 2020, from 19.7 million in 2015, increasing total inbound-tourism revenue to ¥8.0 trillion ($79.0 billion), from ¥3.5 trillion, over the same period. Indeed, we believe the country’s tourism industry is at an inflection point where an effective strategy to attract international tourists could have an outsize impact for years to come. Our new report, The future of Japan’s tourism: Path for sustainable growth towards 2020 (PDF–2.08MB), investigates the challenges and potential impact of several initiatives that address obstacles to realizing the country’s inbound-tourism goals.

Tackling three major challenges

Although Japan is the world’s third-largest economy—trailing only the United States and China—it remains a mystery to many tourists. While hosting the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will provide a global platform to showcase its people, culture, and landmarks, action is required now. For the tourism industry to overcome barriers and achieve its target of doubling annual inbound tourism by 2020, the country’s public and private sectors must come together to address three primary issues:

• The lack of non-Asian visitors. International travelers are attracted to destinations for many reasons, including iconic sites, proximity, and familiarity. Yet Japan has a significant imbalance in its portfolio of visitors: non-Asian visitors accounted for just 16 percent of international tourists to Japan in 2015. The country struggles to convert interest from Western tourists into actual visits, especially when compared with visitors from other Asian nations (exhibit). That may be partly because Western visitors simply aren’t sure what they can see in Japan, even though they profess interest in the country’s major tourism assets once informed about them.
• Skewed regional distribution. Three prefectures—Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo—dominate visitor itineraries, accounting for 48 percent of tourist stays. These three major cities account for 60 percent of inbound-tourism expenditures, despite comprising only 28 percent of the Japan’s GDP. This suggests a sizable opportunity for the country’s other regions.
• Capacity constraints. Accommodations and infrastructure in major Japanese cities are already stretched. In fact, demand simulations for 2020 indicate the country may face an accommodation shortage of up to 50 percent in Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo, as well as an air-capacity overflow of up to 30 percent for Tokyo’s Haneda and Narita airports.

Would you like to learn more about our Travel, Logistics & Transport Infrastructure Practice ?

Correcting Japan’s visitor-portfolio imbalance and skewed regional distribution requires addressing several root causes, including a perception of high cost, low awareness of tourism assets, and a limited service model in local regions. The common challenge is that cooperation between the public and private sectors in many areas—for example, aggregating tourism data and providing an end-to-end experience—is limited, if not nonexistent.

To succeed in meeting the country’s goals for inbound tourism, a public–private partnership (PPP) should be established, modeled on global best practices. Once formed, the PPP should pursue a road map built around five levers:

• Strengthen the Japanese destination-management-organization (DMO) model. Japan’s 80 DMO candidates can be expanded to deliver even greater impact, strengthening the service model in local regions.
• Build a platform to support tourists’ end-to-end customer experience. An integrated online data platform could serve as a mechanism to capture and analyze information about tourists, including purchasing behaviors and preferences. These data could be used to offer a rich, personalized customer experience.
• Support hotels and sightseeing spots in building inbound-tourism capabilities. Many hotels and tourism assets would benefit greatly from support by related businesses and government agencies to address issues such as the language barrier and inefficient purchase processes.
• Embed foreign visitors’ viewpoints in marketing and promotion. Members of the PPP, including the Japan National Tourism Organization and Japan Tourism Agency—which both employ nearly 100 percent Japanese staff—should ensure the viewpoints of tourists are sought out when designing and implementing marketing and promotions.
• Enhance online promotion to make tourists ambassadors. Japan can ensure its online portal showcases its tourism assets as effectively as possible and offers opportunities for the collection and dissemination of word-of-mouth praise.

By bringing stakeholders together through a public–private partnership, Japan can make progress in increasing its attractiveness to many different traveler segments while also addressing the underlying obstacles to growth in inbound tourism. The conditions and timing are right to launch the country into the top tier of tourism-oriented destinations—it just needs coordinated, strategic action.

How a private-sector transformation could revive Japan

Download the full report on which this article is based, The future of Japan’s tourism: Path for sustainable growth towards 2020 (PDF–2.08MB).

André Andonian is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Tokyo office , where Ryo Ishida is a consultant, Tasuku Kuwabara , is a partner, and Naomi Yamakawa is an associate partner.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Cracking the world’s biggest business-travel market

Facebook and the future of travel

Gridlock on the ground: How airlines can respond to airport congestion

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

• Search ITA Search

Japan Travel and Tourism Market

The Government of Japan (GOJ) has gradually been removing travel restrictions that have been in place since the start of the Covid pandemic.  And on September 22, 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced at a press conference in New York that the GOJ would finally eliminate some of the remaining barriers, namely: waive short-term visa requirements to enter and stay in Japan for 90 days; eliminate the 50,000 cap on the number of daily arrivals; and allow visits by individual tourists.  The changes take effect from October 11, 2022.   With these positive developments in border control and the industry’s movements to motivate Japanese consumers to travel abroad, now is an excellent time for the U.S. travel industry to promote its destinations and services in the Japanese market.

Prior to COVID-19, Japan was the second-largest overseas source of travelers for the United States, annually sending 3.8 million visitors and contributing to $13 billion in spending for the U.S. economy.  In 2019, Japanese outbound travelers reached a record number of 20.1 million.  Within this figure, the U.S. was the most popular destination for Japanese travelers with visitors occupying an 18.7% market share.  However, post-COVID in 2021, the number of Japanese travelers to the U.S. fell to its lowest figure on record of 122,000.   Japan’s strong border controls spurred this decrease with strict regulations, making it increasingly difficult for Japanese travelers to visit foreign destinations, including the U.S.  In particular, two obstacles made it especially difficult for Japanese travelers: 1) the requirement of self-quarantining after returning/entering Japan, and 2) the requirement for incoming travelers to provide proof of negative COVID-19 PCR test results.  For the overall traffic of international travel to rise again, there has been a strong need for these regulations to be removed.

In April 2022, there were positive developments to resume international travel that were set by the GOJ, starting with the elimination of self-quarantine requirements for travelers from the U.S.  In addition, in early September, the GOJ no longer required incoming travelers to provide proof of negative COVID-19 PCR test results, as long as travelers had three doses of vaccines.  Despite these welcome steps, the requirement of visas for incoming foreign visitors, a cap on the number of daily arrivals in Japan and need for tourists to arrive in Japan via pre-registered tour groups, continued to hinder travel.

Nonetheless, the local travel industry, led by the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), has been active in promoting outbound travel.  In the summer of 2022, for example, the Japanese tourism industry, consisting of travel companies, airlines, and tourism offices, launched promotional campaigns in Tokyo and other major Japanese cities to encourage international travel.  JATA also launched an online Twitter campaign and placed large ads encouraging outbound travel in major newspapers, with details of the campaign being featured on numerous television news programs.

As the COVID situation continues to gradually improve, after nearly three years of limited traveling, there is pent-up demand with the Japanese to start traveling again.  Various surveys have inquired consumers on what they want to do post-COVID, and the top answers are always “domestic travel” followed by “overseas travel.”  The U.S. is consistently ranked as one of the top destinations for Japanese travelers post-COVID.

For more information about the Japanese outbound travel market, please contact the Commercial Service Japan at [email protected] or visit the Commercial Service Japan Website: https://www.trade.gov/japan .

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

Japan's Tourism Industry Taking Off 

Tourism is a growing industry in Japan, and it has the potential to contribute meaningfully to economic growth over the next decade as the country deregulates the industry, opens casinos, and welcomes foreign visitors to the Olympic Games in 2020.

Key Takeaways

• Tourism has the potential to be a positive economic influence in Japan
• The country is set to meet the government’s target of 40 million tourists by 2020
• The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo provide an opportunity for Japan to expand its tourist base beyond Asia

A decade ago, few tourists visited Japan in comparison with other international destinations. However, over the past five years, the number of tourists has increased by over 24% annually, and the number is expected to continue to rise. With the average tourist spending $1,321 in Q2 2018, tourism in total currently equates to approximately 0.8% of Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP), although the broader impact is estimated to equal about 2.2% of GDP. We believe tourism has the potential for robust growth, and as it expands, its impact on overall economic growth could be significant.

Promoting Tourism

The government has made tourism an important part of its goal to reach 600 trillion yen ($5 trillion) in nominal GDP by 2020. Over the last couple of years, the government has enacted a series of policy changes aimed at turning Japan into a “tourism-oriented country,” which include the relaxation of visa requirements and an increase in the number of low-cost air carrier routes. In 2018, a record 31 million tourists visited Japan, an 8% increase over 2017. 1 Visitors from Asian countries continue to dominate, with tourists from China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand accounting for 75% of total visits in November 2018.

Growth Potential

We believe tourism in Japan has ample room to grow, as the total number of visitors remains small compared to many other countries. For example, in France, the world’s top tourist destination with 87 million foreign tourists in 2017, the tourism industry accounted for 9% of GDP in 2017. Tokyo was ranked 9th in terms of international visitor spending in 2017. However, total expenditures of almost $12 billion were still substantially lower than the $17 billion tourists spent in London or Singapore.

Casino resorts could further boost tourism growth. In December 2016, the Japanese parliament approved a bill to legalize casino gambling, and in July 2018 authorized the construction of three resort casinos. The first is likely to open in 2025, and total gaming revenue from all three is expected to top $12 billion. The Asia-Pacific region has become the largest casino gambling market, with revenue in Macau reaching nearly $38 billion in 2018. 3 By comparison, gaming revenue in Las Vegas is expected to be about $6 billion in 2018.

2020 Olympic Games

The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo are likely to be a big draw for tourists to Japan. In preparation for the games, it is estimated that Japan will spend approximately 6 trillion yen ($53 billion) on transportation infrastructure, including expanding ports, increasing airport capacity, and strengthening transportation hubs. 4

The 2020 Games will provide an opportunity to showcase Japan’s technological know-how. Plans include the creation of an Olympic robot village to help guests with directions, transportation, and translation. Japan plans to impress athletes and tourists with autonomous taxis, 5G wireless technology, and superspeed magnetic levitation trains and hopes to draw visitors from all over the world, including the U.S. and Europe. 5

An Opportunity to Benefit from Japan’s Growth

Tourism is one of many areas contributing to the recovery of Japan’s economy. For investors seeking exposure to Japan’s potential growth, consider the Hennessy Japan Fund (HJPNX/HJPIX) and the Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund (HJPSX/HJSIX), both offering “best ideas” portfolios. The Japan Fund is comprised of globally oriented mid- to large-cap companies. The Japan Small Cap Fund invests in smaller-cap, more domestically focused companies.

Both Funds are sub-advised by Tokyo-based SPARX Asset Management. As one of the largest and most experienced independent Asia-based asset management specialists, SPARX’s “feet on the street” research team provides a significant and crucial advantage for shareholders.

• In this article:
• Japan Small Cap Fund

1. Japan National Tourism Organization.

2. International tourism, number of arrivals, The World Bank.

3. Bloomberg

4. Cooper, Chris and Matsuda, Kiyotaka. “Abe Plans $61 Billion Infrastructure Spending for Japan Revival,” Bloomberg.com, August 2, 2016.

5. Futurism.com.

• Download PDF Version

Get insights and news delivered to you.

You might also like.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group

Amid a tough banking environment over the past few years, many Japanese banks streamlined their operations to achieve record profits. In addition, they are poised to increase their profitability due to potential rate increases. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group looks particularly attractive in today’s environment.

Compelling Valuations in Japan

Japanese equities are currently trading at compelling valuation levels compared to other developed equity markets around the world and relative to their own historical averages. We believe the Japanese market deserves a closer look.

Why Active Matters When Investing in Japan

When investing in Japanese businesses, we believe it is imperative to select a manager who is immersed in the culture and can perform in-depth, company-specific research to build a concentrated portfolio of Japanese companies that can outperform a benchmark and weather volatility.

Learn how Hennessy approaches investing.

Let's work together to get you on your way..

• Meet Our Team
• View Fund Performance
• Check My Account

Subscribe for Updates

*Required Fields

Japan is swamped with tourists. Now visitors are going off the beaten track

Tour operators are touting Japan’s less explored regions as surging visitor numbers put strain on popular sites.

Tokyo, Japan – When Paul Christie started conducting tours on Japan’s Nakasendo, an old trade route along the post towns of Nagano Prefecture’s Kiso Valley, few travellers frequented the trail.

Christie, who has lived on and off in Japan since the late 1980s, viewed the route as a great opportunity for tourists to see a more authentic side of Japan, allowing them to explore the country’s history, nature and geography on foot.

Keep reading

India hosts g20 tourism meet in kashmir under heavy security, saudi arabia eyes aviation expansion to get in on crucial tourism market, are the risks involved in sea and space tourism too high, ‘without rules we cannot live’: greece seeks ways to tackle ‘overtourism’.

Since taking over as CEO of tour operator Walk Japan in 2002, Christie has been on a mission to spread tourists more evenly across the archipelago.

“We’ve been doing this for 20 years and we tend to go to places that are not touristy, so we’re teasing out the interesting parts of Japan,” the United Kingdom native told Al Jazeera.

“This addresses the problems Japan is experiencing with ‘overtourism’.”

“Overtourism” was a common talking point in Japan’s tourism industry before the COVID-19 pandemic.

After eight consecutive years of inbound growth, Japan received a record 32 million visitors in 2019.

But the rising tide did not raise all boats. Most travellers flocked to the Golden Route, running from Tokyo through the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe conurbation, putting historical districts, Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples and popular museums under strain.

Since Japan lifted its pandemic-era border restrictions in October last year, concerns about unsustainable tourism have returned.

Visitors have rushed back in droves: 2.3 million foreign tourists arrived in July, the highest figure for any month since 2019.

China’s decision last month to lift its three-year ban on group tours to Japan is expected to result in a further spike in arrivals.

In 2019, 9.2 million Chinese tourists travelled to Japan, accounting for nearly one-third of all visitors, spending 1.8 trillion yen ($12.2bn) in the process.

“Our head office is located in the centre of Kyoto and we feel there are as many tourists as before COVID,” Hiroshi Kawaguchi, the general manager at tour operator Oku Japan, told Al Jazeera.

“This is a similar situation where major sightseeing spots are overcrowded and public buses are lining up.”

Though Kawaguchi says his company’s vision is not focused on alleviating overtourism, Oku Japan’s business model is attuned to such concerns.

“The main part of our itineraries are off the beaten track,” Kawaguchi told Al Jazeera.

“More importantly, every tour we offer includes the element of community interactions… We call these experiences fureai, and this is particularly important not only for the enjoyment of clients but also the local community.”

Tour operators focused on less-explored regions also believe in the power of tourism to have a positive impact on rural communities and spur chiho-sosei, or regional revitalisation.

In 2007, Walk Japan launched the Community Project to reinvigorate two neighbouring valleys on the Kunisaki Peninsula, where the company is based.

Alongside conducting group tours in the region, Walk Japan carries out development projects, from helping local farmers cultivate rice and shiitake mushrooms, to providing English education for schoolchildren and refurbishing old buildings.

Revitalisation is “part of the company DNA,” Christie said.

“We want to provide an example of what’s possible and perhaps inspire others.”

As Japan’s population greys, many small villages are on the brink of extinction. For such communities, tourism can be a welcome and much-needed rejuvenating force.

“With the right support, some communities genuinely want [tourists] to experience their hospitality and their local lifestyles and find out about their region, as long as they aren’t overwhelmed by visitors and the quality of life isn’t degraded,” Alex Bradshaw, founder and chief consultant at travel and tourism consultancy Gotoku, told Al Jazeera.

“Even if a village doesn’t survive into the future, the fact that it’s been remembered by somebody is incredibly powerful; that people lived here and they had this lifestyle and we shared a little time together. That kind of human interaction is very important.”

Overtourism is not restricted to Japan’s urban areas.

Rural World Heritage sites, subtropical islands, popular hiking trails and national parks have also been negatively affected.

Fuji-Hakone-Izu, for example, receives nearly half of all national park visitors in Japan, owing to its proximity to Tokyo and as the site of Mount Fuji.

Michelle Lyons, founder of Point North, a specialist branding firm supporting businesses passionate about Japanese culture, is working on a campaign to spread tourism – and its economic benefits – more equitably among Japan’s 34 national parks.

“I wanted to find a way to promote all the parks as though it’s a network of destinations that are all equal to each other,” Lyons told Al Jazeera.

“And by presenting them in this way I’m hoping the more popular parks will help raise the profile of the less popular parks.”

Lyons is developing collectable pins and patches for each park and a trading card game. She wants these collectable souvenirs to showcase the individual merits of each park and serve as educational tools.

“The management of the parks is really fragmented, so it’s difficult for them to coordinate their efforts… There needs to be a series of different solutions that creates value for the unique groups involved; a blanket approach isn’t going to work,” she said.

“In terms of increasing expenditure in the parks, gift shops could play a big part in that if they’re more strategic with what they’re selling, and think about what tourists actually want and find appealing.”

Stereotypical images

It’s a common refrain in the industry that Japan does not understand how to market itself to foreign travellers but Bradshaw thinks Western media is also at fault for presenting stereotypical images of the country.

“I see how Japan is presented and I’m kind of confused by it. I just wonder what part of Japan that is, because they do rely on the kitsch, the odd side of it, or culture tropes… It’s all maid cafés, geisha, tea ceremonies and ninja,” he said.

“It would be my hope that people would find a deeper side of Japan. But I understand why that is difficult for the tourism industry as well. When you’ve got to prioritise what sells as opposed to what’s authentic and necessarily good for regional communities.”

Some areas have implemented initiatives to specifically tackle overcrowding.

Kyoto, known as Japan’s cultural capital, is set to abolish its One-Day Bus Pass for tourists, sales of which will cease in October.

Iriomote, widely feted as the most beautiful of the Ryukyu Islands, has limited the number of daily visitors to 1,200.

In Yamanashi Prefecture, the local government has considered restricting the number of hikers on Mt Fuji’s Yoshida trail if it becomes too congested.

Last month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that the government would devise nationwide countermeasures to mitigate overtourism this autumn.

Kumi Kato, a tourism professor at Wakayama and Musashino universities, said the government has made moves in the right direction – such as organising cross-ministry meetings on spreading the benefits of tourism – but there is much work to be done.

“Destination wellbeing should be the goal and benchmarking concept,” Kato told Al Jazeera.

“Promoting the night and early morning economy and secondary destinations will disperse tourism into regional areas but that alone cannot lead to successful regional tourism.”

“It’s critical that the target should be clearly set… high-end tourists, or tourists with wealth, are often talked about, but it should not be misunderstood that only wealthy tourists are valuable,” Kato added.

“Value should be added to high-quality products and authentic experiences [which will] raise visitor spending rather than increase numbers. The government does set a target stay – number of days – and spending per visitor, but strategically ‘what kind of tourists’ should be clearer.”

Japan Tourism Revenues

Tourism revenues in japan decreased to 10501000 jpy thousand in january from 14949000 jpy thousand in december of 2023. tourism revenues in japan averaged 5687118.28 jpy thousand from 1985 until 2024, reaching an all time high of 29067000.00 jpy thousand in october of 2019 and a record low of 39000.00 jpy thousand in may of 2020. source: ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, japan,   markets,   gdp,   labour,   prices,   money,   trade,   government,   business,   consumer,   housing,   taxes,   health,   climate.

• Subscribe Digital Print

• Semiconductors
• Latest News
• Deep Dive Podcast

Today's print edition

Home Delivery

• Crime & Legal
• Science & Health
• More sports
• CLIMATE CHANGE
• SUSTAINABILITY
• EARTH SCIENCE
• Food & Drink
• Style & Design
• TV & Streaming
• Entertainment news

Japan tourism woes an opportunity for needed change

The real challenge is modernizing the industry while retaining japan’s very special character.

Tourism in Japan is recovering. It hasn’t yet hit pre-pandemic levels but the number of visitors is quickly growing.

Japan has cultivated foreign travelers, touting its extraordinary sites and vistas, as well as a level of service and hospitality — its omotenashi — that distinguishes it from many other places. Japan hosted a record 32 million inbound visitors to Japan in 2019 as tourism boomed. Those tourists spent a record ¥4.81 trillion ($43.6 billion), 6.5% more than in 2018 and a seventh consecutive annual increase.

Impressive though those numbers were, 2020 was expected to surpass them by a considerable margin when Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympic Games; industry experts anticipated 40 million visitors and a near doubling of spending to ¥8 trillion. Significantly, foreign travel was part of a larger tourism boom: The entire industry generated about ¥29 trillion in 2019 — a considerable boost to the economy.

Yet instead of continuing growth, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Japan, like so many other countries, shut its doors to foreign travelers and domestic travel locked down. The number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2020 plummeted more than 87%, hitting a 22-year low of 4.12 million people, and tourism revenues fell to $11.4 billion — just a sliver (0.23%) of gross domestic product.

That was not the bottom, however: Just 245,900 people visited in 2021 before the headcount rebounded to 3.83 million in 2022. Industry analysts expect 2023 to be a banner year and the numbers thus far justify those expectations. About 1.5 million people visited Japan in January, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization, a little over half the number of January 2019, but 84 times as many as in January of last year. Monthly arrivals are expected to keep rising — the easing of entry requirements for tourists from China on March 1 should provide a huge boost — and Japan could welcome as many as 20 million visitors this year.

Tourist spending is a welcome boost to an economy that continues to struggle. Foreign visitors are expected to spend about ¥3.5 trillion, about ¥2 trillion ($15 billion) more yen than was estimated to have been spent in 2022. This is a little more than half the amount spent in the year before the pandemic, however.

The surge in arrivals has intensified pressure on an industry that was already under strain. Airlines are not scheduling the number of flights that they had before the pandemic, resulting in full planes and expensive airfares. Ground staff have not returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, yielding long lines at airports and delays in customer service.

Charter bus services lack both drivers and guides. Taxis are harder to find and lines have lengthened at entry points.

According to an industry survey last summer, the hotel, restaurant and entertainment sectors lost nearly 10% of their workforce over the last three years, with the hotel industry labor force experiencing twice that decline. A January survey of more than 10,000 inns and hotels found that 77.8% did not have enough full-time employees and 81.1% said they did not have enough part-time and other irregular-hour workers. This is a record shortage even compared to the boom days of 2019.

Wages have increased in response, but bottlenecks are likely to become even tighter. That will strain efforts to provide the level of service that those visitors are right to expect from Japan.

The nations should diversify the tourist experience. Visitors crowd Tokyo and Kyoto, and while those are special experiences, more should be done to encourage travels to other equally, if not more, rewarding locales elsewhere in the country. That is a challenge in the best of times but even more so as rural populations age and shrink. It will take effort to make less traveled roads and places more hospitable to foreigners, most of whom will not speak the language nor understand local cultures and mores.

Especially tricky will be navigating COVID-19 protocols. The disease remains a concern and Japan, like other tourist destinations, must adapt accordingly. That means reducing crowds most immediately and moving away from the mass tourism of the past. Japan continues to promote mask use and the temperature monitors, glass dividers and sanitizers found on many restaurant tables are not as common overseas. It will be challenging to balance the need for visitors to be welcome and respected and yet mindful of Japanese health practices.

Attention should be devoted as well to sustainability. The most recent tourism white paper notes that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a renewed emphasis on sustainable tourism or “tourism that fully takes into account its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts while addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment, and the communities that host them.”

This obliges hosts to strike a balance. Tourist sites should be accessible but they shouldn’t be overcrowded or congested. Facilities, practices and amenities should be modernized, but local conditions should be preserved and local customs observed. The white paper underscored the need for renovating facilities and removing old, outdated or abandoned buildings. This will take money.

The effective modernization and management of tourism demands a whole of society response. The central government can offer financial support as well as promotional efforts to expose non-Japanese to alternative destinations before they get to Japan. Prefectural governments and communities can help create economies of scale by establishing and promoting programs that encourage spending in defined areas through digital or local currencies. This should be part of the much-needed renovation of regional financial infrastructure.

Universities can promote hospitality programs and degrees and encourage the fertilization of ideas and efforts across studies. A particular area of focus should be digital projects to make areas and their products more accessible (in every sense of the word). Businesses can explore so-called workation options as they adopt more flexible work alternatives. Prefectures and municipalities should energize sister city programs to forge stronger links with their partners in other countries and facilitate tourism.

While the Japanese government is revising its Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Plan for 2023 to 2025, it has been reported that it will keep pre-pandemic goals of attracting 60 million international tourists in 2030, with related consumption valued at ¥15 trillion. That means that the strains Japan is experiencing are likely to intensify, especially when Chinese tourism resumes to pre-COVID-19 levels.

The Golden Week vacation will be revealing. Japan must gear up for those tests but the real challenge is modernizing an industry in need of overhaul — while retaining Japan’s very special character.

The Japan Times Editorial Board

In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). A paid subscription is required for full access.

Economic impact of tourism on GDP in Japan 2012-2021

Economic impact of tourism on the gross domestic product (gdp) in japan from 2012 to 2021 (in trillion japanese yen).

• Immediate access to 1m+ statistics
• Incl. source references
• Download as PNG, PDF, XLS, PPT

Additional Information

Show sources information Show publisher information Use Ask Statista Research Service

August 2023

2012 to 2021

100 Japanese yen equal 0.69 U.S. dollars or 0.63 euros as of September 2023. Figures prior to 2020 come from previous reporting.

Other statistics on the topic

Tourism expenditure by domestic travelers in Japan 2013-2022

Leisure Travel

• Number of domestic travels in Japan 2013-2022

Business Travel

Expenditure on domestic business trips in Japan 2016-2022, by type

Most desired destinations for domestic overnight travel in Japan 2023

To download this statistic in XLS format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PNG format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PDF format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PPT format you need a Statista Account

As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic.

As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic.

As soon as this statistic is updated, you will immediately be notified via e-mail.

… to incorporate the statistic into your presentation at any time.

You need at least a Starter Account to use this feature.

• Immediate access to statistics, forecasts & reports
• Usage and publication rights
• Download in various formats

You only have access to basic statistics. This statistic is not included in your account.

• Instant access  to 1m statistics
• Download  in XLS, PDF & PNG format
• Detailed  references

Business Solutions including all features.

Other statistics that may interest you

• Market size of the tourism sector worldwide 2011-2024
• Travel and tourism: share of global GDP 2019-2033
• Total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP worldwide 2019-2033
• GDP share generated by travel and tourism in Italy 2019-2022
• Tourism consumption in Italy 2017-2020
• Tourist consumption loss due to COVID-19 in Italy 2020, by sector
• Expenditure of domestic and international summer travelers in Norway 2019
• Total expenditure of European tourists in the Netherlands 2018, by country
• Total expenditure of intercontinental tourists in the Netherlands 2018, by country
• Top 10 countries with the highest holiday expenditure in the Netherlands 2018
• Tourism spending in Japan 2022, by travel type
• Share of people with Golden Week travel intentions in Japan 2018-2023
• Reasons for not traveling during Golden Week in Japan 2023
• Domestic travel expenditure in Japan 2021, by prefecture
• Number of domestic travelers in Japan 2021, by prefecture
• Number of guest nights by foreigners at accommodations in Japan 2022, by region
• Foreign overnight guest numbers Niseko Japan 2011-2021
• Number of domestic trips in Japan 2022, by age of traveler
• Number of domestic overnight trips in Japan 2022, by age of traveler
• Annual revenue of China Tourism Group Duty Free 2013-2023
• Countries with the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals worldwide 2019-2022
• Countries with the highest outbound tourism expenditure worldwide 2019-2022
• Leading countries in the MEA in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2018
• International tourist arrivals in Europe 2006-2023
• Foreign exchange earnings from tourism in India 2000-2022
• Number of international tourist arrivals in India 2010-2021
• International tourism receipts of India 2011-2022
• Revenue share from tourism in India 2013-2022, by segment
• Change in number of visitors from Mexico to the U.S. 2018-2024
• Overnight stays of domestic and international visitors in Norway 2019
• Contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in Canada 2016-2017, by visitor origin
• Holidays abroad spent in private homes by Dutch tourists 2007-2017
• Number of outbound trips made from Slovakia 2012-2018
• Number of outbound trips made from Belgium 2012-2019
• Number of outbound trips made from Denmark 2012-2019
• Travel plans of Russian tourists in summer 2021, by destination
• Number of outbound trips made from Luxembourg 1999-2019
• Outbound trips from the European Union 2021, by traveler residence
• Average length of stay by foreign tourists Philippines November 2022-2023
• Number of domestic same-day trip travelers in Japan 2022, by age
• Number of domestic one-day trips in Japan 2022, by purpose
• Number of domestic overnight trips in Japan 2022, by purpose
• Number of people planning domestic travels during Golden Week in Japan 2009-2019
• Average domestic travel spending intentions during Golden Week in Japan 2009-2019
• Average international travel spending intentions during Golden Week Japan 2009-2019
• Total travel spending intentions during Golden Week Japan 2009-2019
• Share of people with Golden Week travel plans in Japan 2019, by travel type
• Major goals of people traveling during Golden Week in Japan 2019
• Distribution of travel groups during Golden Week in Japan 2019, by type

Other statistics that may interest you Statistics on

About the industry

• Premium Statistic Market size of the tourism sector worldwide 2011-2024
• Basic Statistic Travel and tourism: share of global GDP 2019-2033
• Basic Statistic Total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP worldwide 2019-2033
• Basic Statistic GDP share generated by travel and tourism in Italy 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Tourism consumption in Italy 2017-2020
• Premium Statistic Tourist consumption loss due to COVID-19 in Italy 2020, by sector
• Premium Statistic Expenditure of domestic and international summer travelers in Norway 2019
• Premium Statistic Total expenditure of European tourists in the Netherlands 2018, by country
• Premium Statistic Total expenditure of intercontinental tourists in the Netherlands 2018, by country
• Premium Statistic Top 10 countries with the highest holiday expenditure in the Netherlands 2018

About the region

• Premium Statistic Tourism spending in Japan 2022, by travel type
• Premium Statistic Share of people with Golden Week travel intentions in Japan 2018-2023
• Premium Statistic Reasons for not traveling during Golden Week in Japan 2023
• Premium Statistic Domestic travel expenditure in Japan 2021, by prefecture
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic travelers in Japan 2021, by prefecture
• Premium Statistic Number of guest nights by foreigners at accommodations in Japan 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Foreign overnight guest numbers Niseko Japan 2011-2021
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic travels in Japan 2013-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic trips in Japan 2022, by age of traveler
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic overnight trips in Japan 2022, by age of traveler

Selected statistics

• Premium Statistic Annual revenue of China Tourism Group Duty Free 2013-2023
• Premium Statistic Countries with the highest number of inbound tourist arrivals worldwide 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Countries with the highest outbound tourism expenditure worldwide 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Leading countries in the MEA in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2018
• Premium Statistic International tourist arrivals in Europe 2006-2023
• Basic Statistic Foreign exchange earnings from tourism in India 2000-2022
• Basic Statistic Number of international tourist arrivals in India 2010-2021
• Basic Statistic International tourism receipts of India 2011-2022
• Basic Statistic Revenue share from tourism in India 2013-2022, by segment
• Premium Statistic Change in number of visitors from Mexico to the U.S. 2018-2024

Other regions

• Premium Statistic Overnight stays of domestic and international visitors in Norway 2019
• Basic Statistic Contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in Canada 2016-2017, by visitor origin
• Premium Statistic Holidays abroad spent in private homes by Dutch tourists 2007-2017
• Basic Statistic Number of outbound trips made from Slovakia 2012-2018
• Basic Statistic Number of outbound trips made from Belgium 2012-2019
• Basic Statistic Number of outbound trips made from Denmark 2012-2019
• Basic Statistic Travel plans of Russian tourists in summer 2021, by destination
• Basic Statistic Number of outbound trips made from Luxembourg 1999-2019
• Basic Statistic Outbound trips from the European Union 2021, by traveler residence
• Premium Statistic Average length of stay by foreign tourists Philippines November 2022-2023

Related statistics

• Premium Statistic Number of domestic same-day trip travelers in Japan 2022, by age
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic one-day trips in Japan 2022, by purpose
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic overnight trips in Japan 2022, by purpose
• Premium Statistic Number of people planning domestic travels during Golden Week in Japan 2009-2019
• Premium Statistic Average domestic travel spending intentions during Golden Week in Japan 2009-2019
• Premium Statistic Average international travel spending intentions during Golden Week Japan 2009-2019
• Premium Statistic Total travel spending intentions during Golden Week Japan 2009-2019
• Premium Statistic Share of people with Golden Week travel plans in Japan 2019, by travel type
• Premium Statistic Major goals of people traveling during Golden Week in Japan 2019
• Premium Statistic Distribution of travel groups during Golden Week in Japan 2019, by type

Further related statistics

• Basic Statistic Contribution of China's travel and tourism industry to GDP 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Economic contribution of national park visitor spending in the U.S. 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic National park visitor spending in the U.S. 2012-2022, by trip type
• Premium Statistic Middle Eastern countries with the largest international tourism receipts 2018
• Premium Statistic Music tourist spending at concerts and festivals in the United Kingdom (UK) 2012-2016
• Basic Statistic Importance of BRICS countries to UK tourism businesses 2011
• Premium Statistic Number of Royal Caribbean Cruises passenger cruise days worldwide 2007-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of Royal Caribbean Cruises available passenger cruise days worldwide 2007-2023
• Premium Statistic Operating income of Royal Caribbean Cruises worldwide 2007-2023
• Premium Statistic Total assets of Royal Caribbean Cruises worldwide 2007-2023

Further Content: You might find this interesting as well

• Contribution of China's travel and tourism industry to GDP 2014-2023
• Economic contribution of national park visitor spending in the U.S. 2012-2022
• National park visitor spending in the U.S. 2012-2022, by trip type
• Middle Eastern countries with the largest international tourism receipts 2018
• Music tourist spending at concerts and festivals in the United Kingdom (UK) 2012-2016
• Importance of BRICS countries to UK tourism businesses 2011
• Number of Royal Caribbean Cruises passenger cruise days worldwide 2007-2023
• Number of Royal Caribbean Cruises available passenger cruise days worldwide 2007-2023
• Operating income of Royal Caribbean Cruises worldwide 2007-2023
• Total assets of Royal Caribbean Cruises worldwide 2007-2023

• Share full article

A Japanese Village Wants Tourists to Come for Heat, Soot and Steel

To lure visitors, residents of Yoshida, famed for its high-quality steel, are inviting tourists to help produce it.

The furnace in Yoshida reaches temperatures of about 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Credit...

Supported by

Photographs and Text by Craig Mod

• April 18, 2024

This past October, I found myself in Yoshida Village standing before a tatara, a giant open-top furnace that was filled with charcoal and raging with such controlled ferocity that it could have been a set piece in Lucifer’s bedroom.

Deep within the belly of those orange flames sat a growing and mangled ingot that contained some exceptionally high-quality steel called tamahagane, or jewel steel, from which Japanese swords have been made for much of the country’s history. The presence of a usable ingot seemed unlikely, and if true, downright alchemic. All we had been doing for the last 20 hours was gently shaking iron sand and fresh charcoal onto the flames at timed intervals.

Yoshida is nestled back in the mountains of Shimane Prefecture in central Japan, abutting the ever-turbulent Sea of Japan. For nearly 700 years, workers around Yoshida made jewel steel in places called tatara-ba (literally “furnace spots”) on a grueling schedule — one that reshaped mountains and rivers, that seared the brows of generations of sooty men shoveling charcoal in loincloths. Then, at the start of the 20th century, production all but ceased. Other methods were cheaper and more efficient.

At the height of its steel prowess, Yoshida swelled to nearly 15,000 people. Today, the population hovers around 1,500. As with many towns in the Japanese countryside, a mix of aging population, low birthrates and loss of industry has emptied its streets.

Recently, though, in a Colonial Williamsburg sort of way, 24-hour re-enactments of the old iron-smelting traditions began to be performed in Yoshida. The firings are managed by a man named Yuji Inoue, who works for Tanabe Corp., which owns the furnace. “We consider the tatara a symbol and a pillar of town development,” he told me, standing next to the flickering furnace. Mr. Inoue and Tanabe Corp. were trying to remake Yoshida into a kind of tatara village, which he hoped would create self-sufficiency, expand the population and revitalize the town.

And so with this notion of countryside regrowth in mind, a few times a year they fire up their furnace, invite tourists and birth an ingot weighing about 250 pounds.

The open-top blazing furnace was set on a concrete plinth in the center of a room. Flanking its longer sides were air intakes tubes, feeding the furnace, kicking it up to around 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Around it all hung Shinto purification ropes. Just before the fire was lit, a priest had blessed the whole place, for luck and safety.

Safety was paramount because around the flames, at various stations, milled a team of some 20 excited tourists, a mix of both Japanese and a few foreigners, all dressed in very hip dark gray jumpsuits. These were people paying roughly ¥200,000, or about $1,500, for the chance to be a worker in a tatara-ba for a day and night. (They would get to keep the jumpsuits and a small piece of raw steel as souvenirs.) Their faces and hands were streaked by charcoal.

Jewel steel is produced by sprinkling iron sand — alluvial (river-deposited) sand saturated with iron — slowly over a charcoal pit. The tourists spent hours chopping the pine charcoal to precise sizes. They used scoops woven from bamboo to gather heaps of charcoal and dump them atop the furnace.

Off to the side stood a man named Noriaki Yasuda. He was the designated conductor — called a murage — of this slow dance between heat, charcoal and dampened iron sand. Dressed in an electric blue jumpsuit, he stood out in beautiful, almost poetic, contrast to the licking orange flames.

Monitoring the airflow, the color of the fire and the height of the charcoal with paternal concern, Mr. Yasuda scowled and watched, sometimes retreating to sit in his dark alcove, his arms crossed, still scowling and watching. To produce steel using the tatara technique, it turns out, you spend a lot of time watching.

Outside the all-encompassing warmth of the tatara-ba, the October mountain air felt like prickles on the skin. The sky was abundant with shooting stars. Shimane Prefecture truly is in Japan’s hinterlands. You can take trains to Shimane, but from Tokyo it’s a fairly arduous journey. So it’s easier (and cheaper) to fly there. Of course, I rode the trains. The 500-mile trip took about seven hours.

The area is best known for its astounding Izumo Shrine, a foundational place in Japanese cultural mythology. Still, Shimane was one of the least visited prefectures in 2019. Only a sliver of all inbound tourists made their way that year. In contrast to sites like Gion in Kyoto, which is now overwhelmed by visitors, Shimane reminded me of Covid-era Japan when international tourism was effectively banned.

“Steel is just iron with a little bit of carbon,” Mr. Yasuda explained to me. When I finally built up the courage to talk with him, his face lit up in a wide smile from behind his mask. (Everyone was wearing masks, less out of Covid concerns and more because of the charcoal dust.) He casually led me to a blackboard in the back of his resting space and sketched out the basic chemical formulas of what was happening in the furnace, how charcoal serves two purposes. First, it burns much hotter than wood. And second, its carbon atoms are essential to the formation of steel; embedded between iron atoms, they increase the strength of the metal.

As I stood and watched that giant burning thing, I thought back to Akihira Kawasaki, the master Japanese swordsmith I had visited a few days earlier. I explained how I had never before held a Japanese sword, had never carefully looked at one up close. He nodded and removed one of his gleaming works from its scabbard and placed it on a piece of red felt.

I picked it up, and it felt like holding a black hole, as if light were disappearing into the ridge line of the blade, as if light was being flipped and flopped onto and into itself. My eyes couldn’t get a purchase on the thing. It glimmered and reflected like a mirror and simultaneously seemed to inhale the world. Held up to the lights, the blade seemed to glow as if lit from within.

I was mesmerized. It was a thing of extraordinary beauty: delicate yet strong, and terrifying in sharpness. An atavistic choir in the subcortical corner of my brain was screaming, “Stay away from that edge!” When I placed it back on the felt — warily, delicately, with great focus — I still accidentally sliced off a corner of the mat.

The gap between the smelting process and the end product of the sword was enough to make a thinking person faint. All this charcoal and sand, this heat, this sootiness, this periodic removal of slag — impurities that come out like molten lava, scooped up with shovels and carted away in beaten-up old wheelbarrows to be dumped outside in a smoldering heap — from the bottom of the furnace. That this process of utter rawness could result in a Japanese blade so pregnant with artistry and violence was a miracle of the highest order.

Back inside the tatara-ba, after 20 hours of feeding the furnace, the sand ran out and the process ended. A crowd of some 30 villagers, including several children, squeezed inside the furnace’s building. The concrete outer shell of the furnace was gingerly lifted with the help of a winch. The full force of the heat hit us all immediately. Inside still burned a mass of charcoal. Below the bed of charcoal was a floor of liquid slag. And in the middle of it sat what looked like a mauled rock — the ingot all this work had produced.

The crowd cheered. The ingot was brought onto the dirt floor, and we all gathered around it to take a family portrait.

Can you revitalize a town through steel-making in 2024? I don’t know. But Japan is dotted with this kind of history, culture and craft. The countryside is disappearing, but efforts like this are a worthwhile way to look back and honor what was — and to build something sustainable and future-facing.

There’s a practical element to it all, too: Tamahagane can’t be made any other way. “It seems that modern steel-making cannot produce the same thing,” Mr. Inoue told me when I asked why it was worth all the effort. “The tamahagane is right there, as the highest-quality pieces of the ingot,” he said. Those pieces will be broken off and shipped to a handful of swordsmiths across the country, and also to the museum shop in Yoshida. It turns out that tamahagane also makes amazing golf putters.

Craig Mod is a writer and photographer based in Kamakura and Tokyo. You can follow his work on Instagram: @craigmod . His previous book, “Kissa by Kissa,” chronicles a 435-mile walk along the Nakasendo Highway from Tokyo to Kyoto. His forthcoming book, “Things Become Other Things,” will be published by Random House in the spring of 2025.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .

Advertisement

Is Japan finally out of its 30-year slump? Economists are optimistic that Japan is back—and they say they have the data to prove it

Japan’s central bank raised interest rates above zero for the first time in 17 years just under two weeks ago. It lifted interest rates to 0%–0.1%, up from –0.1%, ending the world’s last negative interest rate regime among major economies—and signaling to economists that Japan’s 30-year slump may finally be over.

Tokiko Shimizu, an assistant governor at the Bank of Japan, is one of those who sees the ending of the negative rate regime as symbolic of Japan turning a corner—even if the rate increase is tiny by international banking standards.

“The step itself is very small—10 basis points,” she said Wednesday at the Fortune Innovation Forum in Hong Kong. “But it’s a very great step for the Japanese economy.”

For the central banker, this historic step by the Japanese central bank reflects a new reality in the country, where wages and prices are rising after years of stagnation.

“The reason we decided to change it is because the virtuous cycle between wages and price is going on,” she said, pointing to recent wage negotiations between Japanese companies and labor unions. Discussions led to a 5.28% pay increase, the largest raise in 33 years.

Shimizu noted that her colleagues in other G7 and G20 economies are more worried than Japan’s central bank is about fast wage growth. Companies raise prices to account for higher labor costs, worsening inflation, and, in turn, encouraging workers to ask for more pay increases later. Economists blamed this wage-price spiral for persistent inflation and economic stagnation in Western economies in the 1970s, and worries about this happening again persist in many countries.

Yet Japan has instead faced an altogether different fight: It has battled persistent deflation for decades, causing lower consumption, stagnant wages, and falling asset prices. For Shimizu and her colleagues, March’s wage negotiations show that Japan might finally be seeing a more normal pattern of inflation. 

On Wednesday, Shimizu forecast that further interest rate increases were unlikely. “We expect the price movement in coming years to be around 2%. That means we don’t see any interest rate hike [to be] necessary.”

Headline inflation accelerated to 2.8% in February. It marked the 23rd consecutive month the figure has met or surpassed the central bank’s 2% price target.

Is Japan back?

Japan’s recent interest rate hike is just part of a larger narrative that the world’s fourth-largest economy is back on track. The country’s stock markets have now surpassed records set all the way back in December 1989, at the peak of Japan’s bubble economy. 

Jesper Koll, board director at the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology and a veteran Japan watcher, said Wednesday the country may have finally turned a corner. 

Koll pointed to the number of people quitting their jobs as an indication of a tighter labor market. “Over the past four or five years, this [quit rate] has shot up very dramatically,” Koll said. “The elite, the young, the next generation of Japan are now taking risks,” he continued, with two-thirds of young Japanese now going to startups.

There are changes at the top, too. “When you look at the age of the new CEOs that have been appointed by the leading companies in Japan by listed companies, the age of the CEO has dropped from 69 to 57,” Koll said. 

Companies are also reinvesting in Japan. Leading chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. just opened a factory in Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu—sometimes called “Silicon Island”—in February. 

Finally, Koll suggested that Japan was becoming an “immigration superpower,” with the traditionally closed country attracting many more migrants. 

“Now there are 3.2 million non-Japanese living in Japan, of which 2.4 million are actually working. When I showed up in Japan in the mid-1980s, there were barely 500,000,” Koll explained.

Aging population

Both Shimizu and Koll mentioned one significant challenge for the Japanese economy: its shrinking workforce. Japan has one of the world’s oldest populations, and the country’s government has tried, and failed, to lift fertility rates for over a decade.

That means Japan will have to sustain growth with fewer people. For Shimizu, the answer to the problem comes through robots, automation, and AI.

“Japanese people love robots, compared to Western people,” she said, using a stuffed toy of Doraemon, the famous Japanese cartoon robot cat, to reinforce her point. Robots can help Japan encourage more women and elderly people to join the labor market, expanding the country’s workforce, she explained.

Koll, however, sees demographic change as a way to reinvigorate Japan’s economy. 

“Japan is in this demographic sweet spot because one in four is already over 70 years old, and the baby boomer generation is going to have to die gracefully,” Koll said.  

“Now we’ve got a clean slate for the younger generation,” he said. “This young generation is now leaving the Ministry of Finance … not going to Mitsubishi Corporation, but setting up a new company.”

Latest in Leadership

• 0 minutes ago

Apple could be trying to ‘hedge its supply-chain bets’ away from China with CEO Tim Cook’s whirlwind Southeast Asia tour

Malaysia wants to benefit from chip companies trying to diversify their supply chains: ‘There is enough growth that will go around’

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is stepping aside for the first change at the top at the business friendly island state in 20 years

Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida starts his U.S. visit after Biden criticizes a Japanese steelmaker’s bid for U.S. Steel

China’s commerce minister says the West’s overcapacity concerns are ‘groundless,’ and that the country’s EV success is the result of ‘innovation’ not subsidies

New Zealand will require visa applicants to speak English as its government blasts ‘unsustainable’ migration

Most popular.

Former HGTV star slapped with $10 million fine and jail time for real estate fraud

Your reusable water bottle may be a breeding ground for strep and fecal bacteria. Here’s how to keep it clean

Exclusive: Mercedes becomes the first automaker to sell autonomous cars in the U.S. that don’t come with a requirement that drivers watch the road

A dot-com entrepreneur who once lost $6 billion in one day has made billions from the Bitcoin rally and his company’s surging shares

Joe Lewis’ $250 million superyacht, ranked among the world’s 25-most valuable, sets sail after he pays US fine

Wealthy Norwegians flee to Switzerland to evade high wealth taxes, with their bankers following

Japan's March core inflation slows, weak yen complicates BOJ move

• Medium Text

• March core CPI rises 2.6% year/year, matches forecast
• Core-core CPI rises 2.9%, below 3% for first time since Nov 2022

Get a look at the day ahead in Asian and global markets with the Morning Bid Asia newsletter. Sign up here.

Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Makiko Yamazaki and Tetsushi Kajimoto Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Sam Holmes

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Russia's coal shipments to China fell 21% in March dragged down by sanctions and import tariffs, customs data showed on Saturday.

Markets Chevron

Take Five: Dancing to the dollar's beat

Just when it looked like rate cuts were coming any minute now, inflation has reared its head and the strength of the dollar is forcing other central bankers to protect their currencies and reconsider their policy choices.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem, who in February said the federal government should avoid a major spending increase, on Friday said this week's federal budget had not significantly altered Canada's fiscal path.