Japan Bound

Digital Agency of Japan will integrate ‘My SOS,’ a health certificate app, into ‘Visit Japan Web’ on November 1 2022 to make faster immigration possible.

The number of international arrivals in Japan in September 2022 was 206,500, which were the first over 200,000 a month in the pandemic. Compared to August 2019 (2,272,883 arrivals), the result remained a 90.9% decrease.

Universal Studios Japan (USJ) and Ant Group signed a corporate marketing partnership contract to introduce Alipay+ payment service in the park, expecting that the partnership will raise payment conveniences for visitors to Japan from Asia.

Searches for travel in Japan on major OTAs have been growing since the Japanese government announced the remaining travel restrictions on foreigners would be lifted on October 11 2022.

the number of international arrivals in Japan in August 2022 was 169,800 only. The partial reopen of the inbound travel market since June 2022 did not work well, though arrivals were more than 100,000 for five consecutive months.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that Japan will fully open the border on October 11 2022 by lifting visa requirement for foreigners and the limited entry cap a day.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has launched a digital promotion using the AR technology in Singapore, in which a user can enjoy virtual experience of the famous summer festival ‘Nebuta’ in Aomori Prefecture on a smartphone.

The tourism promotion committee for Taiwan in Japan met the counterpart in Taiwan in Taoyuan City, Taiwan for 2022 Japan-Taiwan Tourism Summit to share a goal to achieve 7.5 million two-way travelers a year.

Japan Tourism Agency has revised "Guidelines for Accepting Foreign Tourists." A travel agency or a travel service arrangement agency is responsible for the tour. They have to make arrangements for round-trip air tickets and all accommodations throughout traveling in Japan before entering Japan.

Japan will raise a cap of the number of entries into Japan from 20,000 a day to 50,000 a day and at the same time permits a foreign tourist tour without a tour conductor on September 7.

Singapore-based OTA Agoda has been raising its presence in the Japan market. A leader of the OTA in Japan talked about its unique strategies both for domestic travel and for inbound travel.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) Executive Senior Vice President Kyoji Kuramotchi talked about the next steps for rebound of the inbound travel market, expecting FIT will be opened soon. How does JNTO develop its strategies to achieve the national goals.

Japan will lift requirement of negative certificates on PCR test within 72 hours before leaving a destination on September 7, but maintain a cap of 20,000 entries a day for a while.

spending in Japan by international visitors totaled 104.7 billion JPY for the first quarter of FY2022 (April to June 2022), and spending a visitor was estimated at 257,206 JPY, higher than usual.

Passenger demand in 2025 is forecasted to grow by 1.3 times to 37.3 million compared to 2018, boosted by Osaka Kansai EXPO and an increase in visitors from emerging Asian countries.

As soon as the FIT market is reopened, JNTO will develop a large scale of advertising campaigns to let consumers know that Japan is ready for every international tourist, as many potential international travelers seem to wait and see until FIT is allowed.

The number of applicants to Entrants, Returnees Follow-up System(ERFS), which is a registration system for new foreigner entries into Japan, totaled 12,291 only as of July 28 2022.

The number of international arrivals in Japan in June 2022 was 120,400 only, though the inbound travel market has partially reopened with the entry cap of 20,000 a day since June 1 2022.

Fliggy, a travel service platform of Alibaba Group, has tied up with Japanese OTA ‘AirTrip.' More than 20,000 lists on AirTrip will be provided to more than 300 million Fliggy members in China.

AndBeyondTokyo, a Tokyo-based tour operator, run helter-skelter to receive its first international customers after the partial reopening of leisure-purpose travelers from San Francisco. Too many hurdles are still on the road to Japan. What are CEO Kuroiwa worried about?