Digital

JR East, a Japanese railway company covering eastern Japan, has begun linking ‘Welcome Suica Mobile,’ an app for international visitors to Japan, with JR-EAST Train Reservation,’ a ticket booking platform.

Rakuten Travel, one of the largest OTAs in Japan, has launched an AI agent ‘Rakuten Travel AI Hotel Search’ that assists a user to find hotel or ryokan candidates, based on reviews and the booking trend analysis data.

‘JTB BÓKUN,’ an activity booking management system, has launched a new system linkage with ‘OMUSUBI,’ a SEEC’s booking management system to manage bookings from multiple OTAs.

Airbnb's economic contribution to GDP by stays and the related spending in Japan amounted to 770 billion yen in 2024, according to the survey conducted by Oxford Economics.

JR Tokai, JR West Japan and JR Kyushu have begun selling QR code for Shinkansen, instead of paper tickets, for Chinese travelers on Wechat mini program, working with Linktivity.

ahoo! Search has begun offering a AI assistant function for a user to create travel routes in conversation with generative AI.

A new tour guided by avatar robot ‘OriHime’ in Nihonbashi area was launched. A pilot can guide a traveler through the "OriHime" that sets on your shoulders, allowing them to walk and talk.

JR Tokai, JR West Japan and JR Kyushu will begin a new Shinkansen booking service on LINE, the biggest communication app in Japan. PayPay, a digital wallet, can be selected as payment.

Activity booking platform Klook and Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) launched a Muslim-friendly campaign ‘Jelajah Hong Kong, proposing proposes Muslim-friendly tourist spots, activities, hotels, halal foods and worships.

M3 Career, medical human resource business provider, launched a new online medical treatment service ‘Hotel de DOCTOR 24’ in April 2025. How good is ‘Hotel de DOCTOR 24’ for hotels, doctors and patients?

NAVITIME Japan announced the most popular cherry blossom spots for international visitors by region in this spring, based on data from the navigation app for international visitors ‘Japan Travel by NAVITIME.’

Lecip Holdings has begun dealing with tour bus ticket on the digital ticket system ‘QUICK TRIP Ticket’ for cruise passengers who join a tour in Ishigaki Island.

A new audio streaming service ‘MORPHONE’ is launched in the tourism market. The cloud-based service, without downloading an app, distributes audio to tour participants on their smartphones all at once.

LINE Yahoo has begun offering a new generative AI service on Yahoo! Search to summarize word-of mouth of 47,000 commercial facilities.

NAVITIME JAPAN has begun providing ‘‘summer retreat mode’ on its travel planning & booking service ‘NAVITIME Travel’ to propose summer retreat destinations.

JTB and Japan Art Council Japan Cultural Expo 2.0 has started selling digital ticket packaging admissions of 30 Japan Cultural Expo 2.0-related facilities nationwide in Japan.

Google Maps has announced the top five most popular spots by prefecture on Google Maps. The most popular spots for tourists were ‘Tokyo Skytree’ in Tokyo, ‘Universal Studio Japan’ in Osaka and ‘Fushimi Inari Shrine’ in Kyoto.

Agoda revealed additional service improvements in Japan, as the OTA has been requested by Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) to solve the troubles in booking rooms.

Traveloka President Caesar Indra, who attended WiT Japan 2025, talked about the strategy for the Japanese market and the OTA’s strengths.

Trip.com has begun broadcasting TV CM featuring Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan to boost overseas travel of Japanese consumers. The CM sends a message of ‘very close to the world.’