News

Tobu Top Tours, a Japanese travel agent, has started selling helicopter sightseeing tours looking down autumn leaves from the sky to enjoy autumn leaves comfortably avoiding traffic jam.

Cross-boarder EC payment service ‘Alipay+’ increased payment volume in Japan for the first nine months of 2025 by 30% year on year, growing payments in medical services, cosmetics, vending machines and entertainments.

Luxury hotel brand Six Senses with 57 guest rooms and suites and 21 residences will be developed in Myoko Suginohara Ski Resort area in Niigata Prefecture. The construction will begin in April 2026.

Traveloka signed a strategic partnership with NETSTARS, a Japanese cashless payment platform, to introduce ‘StarPay-Biz for Hotel,’ a payment platform service exclusively for hotels provided by NETSTARS.

The number of aircraft movements at Narita International Airport in this winter schedule (October 26 2025 to March 28 2026) increases by 3% year on year to 4,755 weekly.

The highest growth rate in international visitors to Japan was seen in Sakaiminato City, Tottori Prefecture, in the summer of 2025, showing 2.83 times more visitors than compared to a year earlier.

JTB, the largest travel agent of Japan, and Hawaii Tourism Japan (HTJ) signed an agreement to create tourism opportunities for advanced medical care and wellness.

The number of Japanese outbound travelers in September 2025 was up 15.0% year on year to 1,394,500, continuing 15% year-on-year growths since July.

Spending by international visitors for the third quarter of 2025 (July to September) increased by 11.1% year on year to 2.1 trillion yen. China topped the list with 590 billion yen (27.7% of total),

The number of international arrivals in Japan in September 2025 was up 13.7% year on year to 3,266,800, totaling 31.7 million arrivals for the first nine months.

Bounce Japan and NAVITIME Japan started the system linkage between Bounce Japan’s ‘Bounce' and NAVITIME’s ‘Japan Travel by NAVITIME' to help international visitors find baggage storage spots on their traveling routes.

JAL will start serving daily flights between Narita and Delhi, India with Boeing 787-8 on January 17 2026, expecting to meet both business and leisure travel demands and transit demands from South Asia to North America via Narita.

The average occupancy rate of 113 hotels in Kyoto City was 76.8% in August 2025, and ADR was down 6.7% to 16,863 yen. DMO KYOTO has forecasted that the occupancy rates are expected to be 86.2% in October.

Agoda implemented improvement of functions on the booking platform, including stricter compliance standards for third-party suppliers, an AI-based trouble detection tool and a 24/7 support service.

Michelin Guide unveiled 128 Michelin Key 2025 hotels and ryokans in Japan. 3 Michelin keys go to ‘Asaba’ in Shizuoka for the firs time (promoted from 2 key) in addition to six hotels selected last year.

JTB has launched a new sharing service ‘Baggage GO’ to match a traveler who wants to deliver baggage in a tourist destination with a driver who wants to take it on a system.

The number of visitors to “Tourism EXPO Japan 2025’ at Aichi Sky Expo from September 25 to 28 2025 was 126,900 in total, exceeding the initial expectation of 100,000.

Event booking platform ‘Peatix’ has launched ‘Visiting Japan,’ a new service for international visitors to Japan to find and book events in multi-languages.

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) released ‘Future of the Travel & Tourism Workforce." Japan is most severely affected, with a labor supply shortfall of 29% compared to demand levels in 2035.

JTB and Airbnb Japan have launched a local revitalization project named ‘Mirai Nigiwai Kobo’ in Japanese to solve a variety of issues in local areas and create new sustainable values.