Japan Bound

Kyoto City will operate dedicated bus, called ‘Hands Free Bus,’ to travelers carrying large suitcases from Kyoto Station to major hotels in this autumn as one of the efforts to avoid over-tourism.

The ratio of new tour operators who are affirmative to receive inbound travelers reduced from 51% in the last survey to 44%, according to JATA survey. The top reason was ‘worker shortage’ (61%).

The number of international visitors to Japan in August 2024 reached 2,933,000, 16.4% more than the same month in 2019 and 35% more than a year ago, marking record breaking for 7 months in a row.

The most-wanted non-alcohol beverages in Japan among travelers from Taiwan and Hong Kong is 'milk' because the quality of Japanese milk is very high with rich and tasty.

Japan National Tourism Organization JNTO) has decided to host ‘Adventure Week’ in Tohoku area in the autumn of 2025 in partnership with Adventure Travel Trade Association(ATTA).

Yamanashi Prefecture announced the results from the Mt.Fuji climbing restrictions on Fuji Yoshida Route this summer. The number of climbers for the period was down 18% year on year to 125,287, and there were no days exceeding the daily limit of 4,000 climbers.

The total number of guest nights in July 2024 (provisionally) was up 8.6% year on year to 59.2 million, which were also up 14.2% compared to the same month of 2019. Guest nights of foreigner travelers were up 35.2% to 14.9 million

HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO will offer ‘Special Private Tours’ to three famous temples in Kyoto, Kiyomizudera, Toji and Hokyoji, for limited guests in this coming autumn.

WeatherNews has forecasted that autumn leaves this year are expected to be at their average peak in many places. The peak will come in Daisetsuzan Asahidake, Hokkaido around September 14,

The latest survey on ‘double pricing’ for inbound travelers finds that 69.5% of Japanese respondents agreed to set higher prices for inbound travelers than for Japanese citizen particularly in culture facilities or nature preservation areas

Japan Tourism Agency requests several revisions in the duty-free rules to raise conveniences for inbound travelers and to reduce burdens on duty-free retailers, including abolition of the upper limit amount of 500,000 yen for consumable goods.

HIS, a Japan’s leading travel firm, and Atami City, a popular onsen destination, signed an agreement on inbound travel promotion. The first effort is that HIS Taiwan will send its local staff to Atami.

The number of international visitors to Japan in July 2024 reached record-high 3,292,500 on a single month basis, increasing by 10.1% compared to the same month of 2019, totaling record-high 21,069,900 for the first seven months of 2024.

JR East a Japanese railway operator., has started a pilot program ‘JR EAST Travel Concierge,’ to support travel planning for international visitors, using Google’s generative AI ‘Gemini’ and Google Cloud.

Foreigners’ guest nights in three major urban areas and in local areas was up 59.0% and 5.9% to 9.76 million guest nights and to 3.81 million guest nights respectively. The largest growth in comparison with May 2019 was seen in Ishikawa with 148.6% up.

EY Strategy and Consulting (EY Japan) has issued an insight report on over-tourism in Japan to introduce countermeasures taken in foreign countries and to reveal results of the survey on over-tourism.

Spending in Japan by international travelers in the second quarter of 2024 increased by 68.6% to 2,1 trillion yen compared to 2019. The highest average was seen in France with 417,536 yen per traveler.

Japan Tourism Agency has estimated that an economic impact boosted by international skiers and snowboarders was about 64.3 billion yen in 2023, recognizing that ski and snowboard are key tourism activities to increase local spending and extend stay days in local areas.

The number of international visitors to Japan in June 2024 reached record-high 3,135,600 on a single month basis, increasing by 8.9% compared to the same month of 2019. The total for the first half of 2024 was up 6.9% to record-high 17,777,200.

The Japanese government focuses on sending inbound tourists to local areas and avoiding over-tourism, forecasting record-high 35 million international visitors and also record-high travel spending of 8 trillion yen in 2024.