Digital
JTB acquired a location data analysis company to Internalize processes from problem identification to effectiveness verification
JTB acquired all stocks of Nightley, a location data analysis company to strengthen to use and analyze its customer insight data.
An app helping international drivers avoid rent-a-car accidents is released by NAVITIME JAPAN
NAVITIME JAPAN and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance developed a smartphone app to reduce rent-a-car accidents by international travelers to Japan.
Local experience bookings by Japanese international travelers during the Golden Week period 2026 increased by up to 2.2 times
According to KKDAY JAPAN, local experience and optional tour bookings from Japanese international travelers for 10 days from March 26 to April 6 2026 were up 2.2 times.
Mitsui hotels in Japan introduce an online medical consultation service for international visitors
39 Mitsui hotels introduced online medical consultation service ‘Mimipo for Travel,' 24/7 online medical consultations available from hotel rooms.
Activity booking platform KKday connects Japanese PMS providers, allowing accommodations to offer package plans
KKday has started system linkages with Japanese PMS providers of ‘TL-Lincoln and TEMAIRAZU, allowing accommodations offer package plans combined with local experiences or tickets on the KKday platform.
The top Net Promoter Score OTA is jalan.net in Japan, and 68% said AI answers fit my tastes
According to NTT Docomo Business X 's NPS (Net Promotor Score) benchmark survey 2025, the top NPS OTA was jalan.net (4.2 points), followed by ikyu.com (1.5 points) and Yahoo!Travel (-4.6 points).
Multimodal booking platform ‘Omio’ enters the Japanese market for international travelers to Japan
Berlin-based multimodal booking platform 'Omio' has entered the Japanese market to provide international travelers to Japan with booking opportunities of transportations.
A hotel in Hokkaido installs ‘the Mirai (Future) Human Washing Machine,’ the next generation bath system introduced in Osaka EXPO
ES CON Field Hokkaido Hotel Kitahiroshima Station, operated by SQUEEZE, will install ‘the Mirai (Future) Human Washing Machine,’ which attracted a lot of attentions in the Osaka Kansai EXPO 2025.
What is Self-Sovereign Identity?JAL,NEC and Ministry of Communications of Japan discuss about a new trend to manage your own date by yourself
At a symposium ‘IISE FORUM 2026,' JAL, NEC and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications discussed Self-Sovereign Identity, which is expected to penetrate into the future society.
Expedia brand General Manager talks about their strategy in Japan and the future travel trends including the growing secondary cities
Travel Voice interviewed Tracey Weber, senior vice president and general manager of the Expedia brand, to know how Expedia sees the current Japanese market and the future travel trends.
AI-based autonomous driving ‘robo-taxi’ will be tested on Uber app in Tokyo under the collaboration by Wayve, Uber and Nissan
Wayve, an AI technology developer for automobile, Uber Technologies and Nissan Motor are working together for development of AI-based autonomous driving ‘robo-taxi' in Japan.
The most-satisfied OTA in Japan was ikyu.com, and top was Rakuten Travel in activity booking
Oricon, a survey and analysis company, announced the user satisfaction ranking for general OTA, activity booking OTA and hotel meta-search in Japan.
Three Mitsui Fudosan’s hotels offer an room key service on Apple Wallet, which also opens keys of facilities in the hotels
Three Mitsui Fudosan’s hotels started offering a room key service using Apple Wallet, which allows a guest to open not only a room but also facilities in the hotels.
Japan’s word-of-mouth posting ranking 2025 in travel websites shows Booking.com had the largest share, occupying about 50% including the second Google
No.1 travel website with the most word-of-mouth posted in 2025 was Booking.com, followed by Google. The top 2 had a share of about 50% of the total.
Trip.com sells Shinkansen tickets for a user to pass through a gate with an issued QR code
Trip.com will begin selling Shinkansen tickets in partnership with four JR companies, offering purchase opportunities to international visitors to Japan in their respective languages.
JR East, a Japanese railway company, launches a new online booking system for Shinkansen completing a booking in as little as one minute
JR East, will launch a new online booking system for Shinkansen ‘JRE GO, which allows a user to complete a booking as little as in one minute.
A new settlement service debuts for accommodations in Japan to receive payment from global OTA more quickly and automatically
New BtoB settlement service in linkage with ‘TEMAIRAZU,’ a platform for an accommodation to manage bookings from multiple global OTAs, enables an OTA to send money to an accommodation, using Mastercard’s VCN.
Japanese major digital wallet service ‘PayPay’ forms a partnership with Visa for cross-border payment both in Japan and globally
Japanese major digital wallet service ‘PayPay’ signed a strategic partnership with Visa to build a global PayPay ecosystem. The first global market will be U.S.
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium expands sales channels for international guests in partnership with Linktivity
Linktivity, an e-ticket platform of Japan, has extended its sales network for Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium to allows global OTAs to sell the tickets to their users.
Yahoo! Search supports a traveler with a new AI assistant function to recommend spots in a destination
LINE Yahoo has begun providing a new AI function to recommend spots in a destination on ‘AI Assistant.' 46% felt a time-consuming burden on finding tourist spots in planning a travel.
