The Japanese government accepted five-years ‘Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Plan’ from FY2026 to FY2030 on March 27 2026. Th Plan specifies that the tourism industry is a "strategic industry" that leads the development of regional and national economies, and aims to create a tourism industry that sustainably passes on and develops the appeal of Japan for future generations. 

Five basic policies and three concrete actions

The plan sets forth five policy directions: "sustainable development of tourism," "increasing spending," "promoting tourism to regional areas," "strengthening collaboration between tourism and transportation/urban development," and "utilizing and fully deploying new technologies.”

Specifically, the Japanese government shifts away from simply pursuing numbers and emphasizes the quality of tourism. It also utilizes the international tourist tax to strengthen measures to prevent and mitigate over-tourism.

Furthermore, it tries to increase satisfactions of both local residents and tourists by a variety of concrete actions, such as revitalization of urban landscapes through tourism-oriented urban development and development of local transportation for both tourists and local residents. In addition, the government will promote travels in Japan by Japanese people with a target of 30 trillion yen in domestic travel spending.

To drive the five basic policies, the Japanese government will make three concrete actions: Strategic promotions to attract inbound travelers and balance between inbound tourism and the quality of life for residents, Expansion of domestic and outbound travels and Strengthening the resilience of tourist destinations and the tourism industry.

Numerical targets

The previous targets of 60 million international visitors to Japan and 15 trillion yen in foreign visitor spending by 2030 remain unchanged, and to further promote tourism to regional areas, the plan sets goals of 40 million repeat visitors, almost two-third of the 60 million,  and 130 million overnight stays in regional areas.

In addition, the plan includes a goal of Asia's top and within the world's top 5 in the number of international conferences.

Meanwhile, to prevent over-tourism nationwide, the plan aims to double the current number of regions working to balance strategically attracting tourists with ensuring the quality of life for residents to "100 regions.

Furthermore, the plan sets a new indicator "value added created by the lodging industry” as an indicator of improved profitability in the tourism industry through strengthening tourist destinations and the tourism industry, and the government aims to achieve 6.8 trillion yen for that. 

For travels in Japan by Japanese people, a goal of spending a year is 30 trillion yen, and the goal of guest nights in local areas are 320 million a year. The number of outbound travelers from Japan is expected to break the previous record (20 million) by FY2030.