News

Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) and USEN-ALMEX have begun testing the next generation hotel check-in system using international-standard digital passport, targeting travelers from South Korea first.

The average occupancy rate of 111 hotels in Kyoto City was down 0.7 points year on year to 86.9% in November 2025. Chinese guest nights were down 12.1%.

The number of Japanese international travelers in 2025 was up 13.3% year on year to 14,731,500 in total, which were still down 26.6% over 2019.

Spending by international visitors in 2025 increased by 16.4% year on year to record-high 9.5 trillion yen. Spending per person was up 0.9% to 229,000 yen.

The number of international arrivals in Japan in 2025 was up 15.8% year on year to 42,683,600 in total, about 17 million more than 2023 or about 10 million more than 2019.

JTB, Rakuten Travel and booking.com organized ‘Sustainable Together,’ a cross-industry event for sustainable tourism to step forward for collaboration to sustainable challenges.

Hakone DMO, a local DMO in popular tourist destination in Japan, and TripX, a AI development startup, officially released ‘RecRing,’ an AI-based restaurant reservation service for international visitors.

[PR] ‘Digital Travel APAC 2026’ will be organized as a travel-tech event in APAC for two days from March 24 to 25 2026 in Singapore, designed for travel-tech leaders in all sessions. The theme is ‘Reimagining Travel in APAC: Smarter, Deeper, More Human.'

HIS signed an official regional partner contract with Tottenham Hotspur FC, offering game tours and special experience programs as only an official travel partner in Japan.

JTB drew up a new long-term vision ‘OPEN FRONTIER 2035’ for 2035. Under the vision, ‘exchange creation intelligence’ is placed as a source of the JTB group’s values and a base supporting higher and more diversified exchanges.

Mistui Fudosan Hotel Management has introduced a childcare service ‘Parent Time’ for international family travelers to Japan in its operating Hotel The Celestine.

Seven-Eleven Japan has introduced a luggage storage service ‘ecbo cloak’ at 378 stores in 26 prefectures to meet travelers’ needs especially for international visitors to Japan.

cherry blossom is expected to begin blooming in Tokyo first on March 21 2026, according to Weather News. In Hokkaido, Cherry blossom blooming is expected to be seen in late April.

JTB has forecasted that the number of international travelers to Japan in 2026 is expected to reduce by 2.8% year on year to 41.4 million, affected by a decrease in travelers from China and Hong Kong.

JTB has forecasted that the number of Japanese travelers in 2026 is expected to reduce by 2.0% year on year to 323 million in total. Japanese international travelers will be up 2.6% to 15.5 million.

Three tourism organizations of Japan are working together for creation of momentum toward a goal of 1 million cruise travelers, making a new logo with a new catchphrase of ‘Let’s CRUSIE 1 M (Million).'

Hakuba Village in Nagano Prefecture, a popular snow resort in Japan, has decided to levy a 50,000 yen or less penalty against tourists who violate the regulated manners in the ordinance.

608.5 billion yen was spent by approximately 1.56 million Expo visitors. An international visitor to Osaka Kansai EXPO spent 390,000 yen on average during staying in Japan, much more than 210,000 yen on average as a whole.

The government will reduce the passport acquisition fee from 16,000 yen currently to 9,000 yen for a 10-years-valid passport, and from currently 11,000 yen to 4,500 yen for a five-years-valid passport.

The Japanese ruling parties specify a rise in departure tax from 1,000 yen currently to 3,000 yen on July 1 2026 in the Tax Reform Outline for FY2026 to drive the national tourism policies.