Digital

‘FUN! JAPAN,' a community website for Asian travelers to Japan, launched a new SNS, which is a service for community members to enjoy conversations with simultaneous translation.

Uber Japan will support Kaga City in Ishikawa Prefecture for a ride-share service by general drivers with its app. The Japanese government will deregulate the ride-share rules for general drivers in this spring.

Airbnb has begun offering its listed homes in Ishikawa Prefecture to victims of the Noto Peninsula earthquake as secondary shelters through non-profit organization Airbnb.org.

ANA has started selling international flight tickets on trip.com through Travelfusion, a NDC aggregator, allowing a user to change a flight, repay and purchase optional services in addition to booking and ticketing on trip.com.

TradFit, a Japanese AI speaker provider for accommodation, launched a new service to recommend a right hotel in a destination based on data acquired from a user’s smartphone.

Timee, a spare-time job matching platform, revealed that the number of spare-time job offerings by hotels increased by about 4.2 times in December 2023 compared to a year ago. it resulted from serious labor shortage in the hospitality industry in Japan.

JTB Tourism Research & Consulting reported the survey results about usage of smartphone and travel spending in Japan. SNS is widely used not only for consumption-related information but also for news or current affairs.

ANA has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Trip.com Group to increase travelers from China to Japan, opening a flagship shop and deliver LIVE commerce on Trip.com website and app.

Taxi app ‘GO’ provider is starting support services to taxi companies that are planning to start a ride-share service, developing an app for ride-share drivers and a management system for operators and local governments.

Tokyo Metro and YAMAHA will begin testing a new multi-language service ‘Visualized Announcement’ transcribing voice announcements in a station on a smartphone.

ANA NEO, an ANA Group company for digital solution, has launched a virtual trip platform app ‘ANA GranWhale,’ where a user as an avatar can enjoy virtual travel space ‘V-TRIP’ and a virtual shopping space ‘Sky Mall.’

Hankyu Travel International, a major travel company of Japan, and NAVITIME JAPAN, a navigation app provider, will jointly develop tours for luxury inbound travelers.

NTT Data, a major Japanese data company, will open a capsule hotel specializing in sleep analysis, acquiring, accumulating and analyzing sleep data using infrared cameras, sound-collecting microphones, and body movement sensors.

Amazon Japan (Amazon) has begun offering ‘Alexa Smart Properties (ASP)’ as a service for businesses using the personal AI assistant Alexa. Tokyu Hotels & Resorts will introduce Echo Show 8 to 56 premium class rooms at the lifestyle hotel "SAPPORO STREAM HOTEL" that will open in Sapporo on January 16 2024.

Airbnb Japan has introduced new specific functions for Japan in line with the recent trends in the Japanese market, saying that guests choose locations other than famous tourist spots and prefer to group travel.

Digital SENTO(public bathhouse) experience tour for foreign travelers who arrive in Haneda Airport located in Ota area is developed as a Japan’s unique tourism attraction.

Japan Travel and Tourism Association has built ‘Japan Travel and Tourism Association Digital Platform’ to help local regions use tourism data analysis for sustainable tourism business, offering a basic function and a paid extension function.

NOT A HOTEL, a Japanese real estate sharing service provider, has signed MOU with GMO COINS to prepare for selling new crypto-assets as a money-raising means, trying to build a scheme for everyone to own and use NOT A HOTEL properties all together.

‘EXPO 2025 Digital Wallet’ service started on November 1 2023 to connect the EXPO with wallet users, nicknaming e-money as ‘MYAKU-PE!' and reward point as ‘MYAKU-PO!’

Shimanami Japan, a local DMO, has started tourism DX demonstration on its app for rent-a-bicycle users in Shimanami area in order to increase local spending by them.