News
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 Japanese government decided to introduce JESTA as pre-entry check by March 2029
Japan will introduce JESTA or Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorization by the end of March in 2029 to balance security and convenience in Japan's inbound tourism policy.
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.
Japanese ‘DO (way)’ discipline is redefined as a modern wellness experience for international travelers by, KNT-CT, a major travel agent of Japan
KNT-CT Holdings has started selling Japanese ‘DO (way)’ discipline as modern wellness experiences for international travelers.
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.
Accommodations in Japan increased International guests by 8% but decreased Japanese guests by 4% in 2025
The total of guests in accommodations in 2025 was down 0.8% to 653 million, and the average occupancy rate was up 2.2 points to 61.8%.
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.
The percentage of Japanese passport holders rose to 18% as of the end of 2025, and online applications increased to 36% of the total
The percentage of Japanese passport holders was about 17.8% in 2025, higher than about 16.8% a year earlier. The ratio of online applications rose from about 9% in 2024 to about 36% in 2025
International cruise travelers to Japan increased by 1.2 times to 1.8 million in 2025 with 20% more port calls by foreign cruise ships
the number of international cruise travelers to Japan increased by 1.2 times year on year to 1,767,000, and port calls were up 1.3 times to 3,117, 6% more than the peak level in 2018.
Cherry blossom is expected to begin blooming in Tokyo on March 22 and in Hokkaido on April 24
Cherry blossom is expected to bloom as usual in western Japan and in eastern Japan and as usual or very earlier than usual in northern Japan. Booming is forecasted to begin in Tokyo on March 22.
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 domestic travel consumption was up 6% to 27 trillion yen in 2025 despite a reduction in Q4
The total amount of Japanese domestic travel consumption was up 6% year on year to 26.8 trillion yen in 2025. Travel spending a travel per traveler was up 3.8% to 48,359 yen.
JTB and Mitsubishi Electric work together to promote autonomous driving services in a tourist destination from dispatch to operation
JTB and Mitsubishi Electric work together to promote autonomous driving services in order to solve shortage of workforces and to activate local economy in a tourist destination.
Japanese international travelers were up 17.6% year on year to 1.07 million in January 2026
The number of Japanese international travelers in January 2026 was up 17.6% year on year to 1,072,600, higher growth rate than 9.6% in the previous month.
International arrivals in Japan declined for the first time in four years in January 2026
The number of international arrivals in Japan in January 2026 was down 4.9% year on year to 3,597,500, declining for the first time in four years since January 2022.
Korean Air will considerably extend flight networks to local cities in Japan in this summer
Korean Air will considerably extend flight networks to local cities in Japan in this summer schedule, on the Seoul Incheon-Komatsu, -Aomori, -Okayama and --Niigata route routes.
A tourism finance lawyer explains what is going on an accommodation tax in Japan, citing that Kyoto City collects 10,000 yen a night at a maximum
Takahiro Ikeji, tourism finance lawyer and senior researcher of Japan Travel Bureau Foundation, explained what is going on an accommodation tax in Japan.a A fixed tax system or a flat rate system?
