News

Passport renewal in Japan will be made possible online on March 27 2023. A Japanese passport holder will no longer visit an application window for passport renewal procedure.

Korean Air will largely increase flights for Japan after October 2022, expecting to restart two-way traffic between Japan and South Korea in earnest, resuming Fukuoka and Sapporo services.

Japan and Spain signed a memorandum for mutual tourism cooperation on September 22 2022, focusing on five priorities including local tourism and sustainable tourism as new viewpoints.

JTB Communication Design and Terra Motors agreed to a business partnership to establish a sustainable EV-charging and tourism infrastructure and a tourism platform to provide tourist information and services in the neighborhood.

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.

Resuming three flights a week between Haneda and Sydney with A330-300 (28 business class seats and 260 economy class seats) on September 13, Qantas Airways is restarting tourism promotion activities in Japan in earnest.

JAL will serve ‘Sustainable Charter Flight’ on the Haneda-Naha route on November 18 2022, realizing ‘practical zero CO2 flight’ with A350-900.

Sumitomo Mitsui Card, a leading credit card of Japan, will begin providing its cashless payment data to Tourism Forecast Platform, enabling users to analyze consumption behaviors of domestic and foreign travelers.

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.

The Japanese government will kick off a nationwide travel discount program and an event discount program on October 11 2022. The program will discount by 40% a traveler a night.

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.

sales of 43 major travel companies increased by 60.5% year on year to 180.3 billion JPY in total in July 2022. Compared to July 2019, the reduction rate increased to 55.9% because of the 7th COVID-19 wave.

HIS has acquired shares of Rural, a startup to provide tourism-oriented digital currency ‘Rural Coin’ and ‘Rural NFT' to accelerate its new business in a Web 3.0 space.

Atout France or a France tourism development agency, hosted ‘Rugby World Cup 2023-1 Year to Go Reception,' expecting that the big sports event will be a chance to increase Japanese travelers to France.

Amsterdam-based Tiqets and Hong Kong-based Klook made a strategic partnership to connect their supply channels. Each of the brands aims to raise awareness in the partner's market.

Chikako Miyata, Executive Vice President Group Chief Sustainability Officer at ANA Holdings, talked about ANA ‘ESG Management,’ placing ‘Environment,’ ‘Human Rights,’ ‘Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI)’ and ‘Regional Revitalization.'

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 total number of Japanese guest nights in July 2022 (provisionally) was up 29.4% year on year to 38 million, and the occupancy rate was 46.7% overall, 16.6 lower points than 2019.

ANA will increase the frequencies from five flights a week on the Haneda-Honolulu route and from two flights a week to three flights a week on the Narita -Honolulu route including an A380 ‘Flying Honu’ service.

Consumer Affairs Agency of Japan reported that Japanese young generation is more motivated by ‘a sense of togetherness’ or ‘one-time experience’ for participation in an event or an experience.