Current status

Domestic tourism remains a vital part of Japanese economy and Japanese culture. Across the nation, Japanese children in many middle schools see the highlight of their years as a visit to Tokyo Tower, Yomiuriland, Tokyo Disneyland, Sensō-ji, and/or Tokyo Skytree, and many high school students often visit Okinawa or Hokkaido. The extensive rail network together with domestic flights sometimes in planes with modifications to favor the relatively short distances involved in intra-Japan travel allows efficient and speedy transport. International tourism plays a smaller role in the Japanese economy compared to other developed countries; in 2013, international tourist receipts was 0.3% of Japan's GDP, while the corresponding figure was 1.3% for the United States and 2.3% for France. In 2019, the value was up to 1.0% of GDP, driven by an increase in international tourism, while the country's GDP has remained stable.

Tourists from South Korea have made up the largest number of inbound tourists several times in the past. In 2010, their 2.4 million arrivals made up 27% of the tourists visiting Japan.

Travelers from China have been the highest spenders in Japan by country, spending an estimated 196.4 billion yen (US$2.4 billion) in 2011, or almost a quarter of total expenditure by foreign visitors, according to data from the Japan Tourism Agency.

From 2016 to 2020, Japanese government hoped to receive 40 million foreign tourists every year by 2020. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization in 2017, 3 out of 4 foreign tourists came from other parts of East Asia, namely South Korea, mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Japanese film, TV, video game, and manga/anime industries, who lead a role in driving tourism to Japan. In surveys held by Statista between 2019 and 2020, 24.2% of tourists from the United States, said they were motivated to visit Japan because of Japanese popular culture.

Contribution to the national crises

Following the triple meltdown of Fukushima nuclear reactors in Fukushima Prefecture caused by the earthquake and tsunami, the number of foreign visitors to Japan declined for the first time since 2009. In September 2011, some 539,000 foreign tourisms visited Japan, 25 percent down compared with the same month in 2010. This decline was largely attributed to the natural disasters including Fukushima nuclear accident; also the stronger yen made a visit to Japan more expensive.

In October 2011, the Japan Tourism Agency announced a plan to give 10,000 round-trip air tickets to Japan to encourage visitors to come and to boost tourism. However, on December 26, 2011, the Agency reported on their site that the "Fly to Japan! Project", which would have given out 10,000 round-trip tickets to Japan, had not been approved by the government for fiscal year 2012.

By 2012, free tickets would be offered if the winners would write online about their experiences in Japan. They also would need to answer some questions about how they felt while visiting Japan after the triple disaster and how interest in tourism in Japan could be renewed. About US$15 million would be spent on this program. International tourism inflows in Japan had recovered to pre-2011 levels.

In early 2020, Japan received only 4.1 million foreign tourists, as many countries tightened travel restrictions due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first time visitor statistics had fallen since the Great Recession in 2008. In January and September 2021, tourism in Japan had also further dipped to 245,862 foreign visitors, which was a 88% decrease as compared to 2020. In October 2021, as the country lifted the fourth state of emergency up and ahead of the endemic phase, the Japanese government announced that many domestic visitors would be only resumed and waived from the pandemic, in a move to reopen domestic travel with the introduction of vaccinated travel lanes.

In late November 2021, amid the spread of a highly transmissible COVID-19 Omicron variant, many countries including Japan tightened travel restrictions, with some governments banning travel completely to curb transmission.

In September 2022, the Japanese government announced that visa requirements from some countries would be waived from October 2022, in a move to reopen international travel after the pandemic border restrictions. Prior to the pandemic, Japan did not require tourist visas for 68 countries and regions.

Tourism statistics

These are the top 35 nationalities that visited Japan from 2017 to 2023.

Country/Territory	Total
	4/2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
South Korea	2,999,900	6,958,494	1,012,751	18,947	694,476	5,584,597	7,538,952	7,140,200
Taiwan	1,938,600	4,202,434	331,097	5,016	487,939	4,890,602	4,757,258	4,564,100
China（Mainland）	1,861,600	2,425,157	189,125	42,239	1,069,256	9,594,394	8,380,034	7,355,800
Hong Kong	808,100	2,114,402	269,285	1,252	346,020	2,290,792	2,207,804	2,231,500
United States	799,600	2,045,854	323,513	20,026	219,307	2,187,557	1,939,719	1,756,732
Thailand	466,200	995,558	198,037	2,758	219,830	1,318,977	1,132,160	987,100
Australia	333,700	613,062	88,648	3,265	143,508	621,771	552,440	496,100
Philippines	269,300	622,293	126,842	5,625	109,110	613,114	503,976	424,200
Vietnam	233,800	573,916	284,113	26,586	152,559	495,051	389,004	308,900
Malaysia	180,200	415,712	74,095	1,831	76,573	501,592	468,360	439,500
Indonesia	179,400	429,382	119,723	5,209	77,724	412,779	396,852	352,200
Singapore	178,400	591,267	131,969	857	55,273	492,252	437,280	404,100
Canada	175,500	425,874	55,877	3,536	53,365	375,262	330,600	305,591
United Kingdom	150,500	321,482	57,496	7,294	51,024	424,279	333,979	310,499
France	123,000	277,436	52,782	7,024	43,102	336,333	304,896	268,605
Germany	108,900	233,410	45,748	5,197	29,785	236,544	215,336	195,606
India	73,000	166,394	54,314	8,831	26,931	175,896	154,029	134,371
Italy	63,700	152,305	23,683	3,527	13,691	162,769	150,060	125,864
Mexico	41,800	94,684	9,152	1,124	9,528	71,745	68,448	63,440
Spain	39,600	115,873	15,926	3,053	11,741	130,243	118,901	99,814
Russia	27,400	41,965	10,324	3,723	22,260	120,043	94,810	77,251
New Zealand	17,644	78,978	12,107	1,404	16,070	94,115	73,208	64,873
Macau	14,387	74,252	1,359	54	12,234	121,197	108,694	115,304
Nepal	11,146	83,302	75,200	11,648	17,191	51,577	44,297	39,950
Brazil	10,024	50,570	9,436	2,731	6,888	47,575	44,201	42,207
Netherlands	8,274	74,486	12,064	1,860	8,481	79,479	72,069	63,041
Myanmar	7,908	45,815	22,763	1,531	10,884	30,977	24,418	22,915
Mongolia	7,789	39,916	19,267	1,685	7,118	31,513	27,647	23,365
Switzerland	6,259	53,395	8,917	1,387	6,036	53,908	52,099	47,154
Sri Lanka	5,778	36,742	21,536	3,127	8,918	28,380	27,789	27,904
Sweden	5,610	39,245	7,900	1,112	7,622	53,836	53,822	50,805
Turkey	5,209	31,198	7,129	1,161	2,886	22,724	19,762	19,123
Poland	4,331	40,634	5,745	1,350	3,996	38,534	34,706	28,727
Pakistan	4,007	21,132	11,423	4,284	6,145	17,208	15,802	13,729
Ireland	3,872	22,985	4,458	820	3,270	39,387	20,319	18,591
Cambodia	3,867	27,067	13,618	784	7,420	28,492	21,696	17,857
Belgium	3,849	34,352	6,611	1,122	4,074	39,245	34,387	32,054
Denmark	3,833	30,780	5,403	794	4,780	32,893	29,163	25,235
Finland	3,621	21,404	4,608	736	4,859	29,437	27,116	25,310
Chile	3,576	13,808	1,902	276	3,381	13,370	14,089	11,027
Portugal	3,528	27,812	3,176	728	3,179	32,349	26,506	23,442
Bangladesh	3,345	19,559	11,981	1,789	4,444	15,174	13,971	12,878
Norway	3,294	21,541	3,736	557	3,620	24,838	22,569	20,786
Austria	3,094	26,360	5,025	888	3,605	27,530	24,187	21,035
Argentina	2,821	13,177	2,198	798	4,220	23,805	23,692	18,610
Israel	1,929	45,143	7,673	619	2,315	44,214	39,193	32,758
United Arab Emirates	1,905	10,270	2,705	203	770	8,891	7,782	7,106
Czech Republic	1,563	13,958	2,487	753	1,679	14,356	12,255	11,114
Romania	1,462	15,316	2,376	552	1,409	14,837	12,250	10,390
Saudi Arabia	1,432	12,380	2,403	1,039	11,152	7,403	7,554	7,587
Greece	1,046	9,969	1,869	744	1,091	9,494	7,968	6,703
Hungary	1,011	11,316	2,511	1,034	1,302	12,696	10,440	9,148
Total (all countries)	11,601,200	25,066,350	3,832,110	245,862	4,115,828	31,882,049	31,191,856	28,690,900

See also

• Groups of Traditional Buildings
• Japanese museums
• List of National Geoparks in Japan
• List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments
• World Heritage Sites in Japan
• List of museums in Japan
• National Treasures of Japan
• Omiyage
• Ryokan (Japanese inn)
• Visa policy of Japan

References

• Travel with Smile. Best Places to Travel in Japan

Further reading

• Graburn, Nelson HH. "The past in the present in Japan: nostalgia and neo-traditionalism in contemporary Japanese domestic tourism." in Change in tourism: people, places, processes (1995): 47–70.
• Henderson, Joan Catherine. "Destination development: Trends in Japan's inbound tourism." International Journal of Tourism Research 19.1 (2017): 89–98. online
• Ishimori, Shûzô. "Popularization and commercialization of tourism in early modern Japan." Senri Ethnological Studies 26 (1989): 179–194. online
• Jimura, Takamitsu. Cultural heritage and tourism in Japan (Routledge, 2021) online.
• McOmie, William, ed. Foreign Images and Experiences of Japan: 1: First Century AD-1841. (Brill, 2021). online
• March, Roger. "How Japan solicited the West: the first hundred years of modern Japanese tourism." in CAUTHE 2007: Tourism-Past Achievements, Future Challenges (2007): 843–52. online
• Robertson, Jennifer. "Hegemonic nostalgia, tourism, and nation-making in Japan." Senri ethnological studies 38 (1995): 89–103. online
• Soshiroda, Akira. "Inbound tourism policies in Japan from 1859 to 2003." Annals of Tourism Research 32.4 (2005): 1100–1120.
• Takeuchi, Keiichi. "Some remarks on the geography of tourism in Japan." GeoJournal (1984): 85–90. online
• Tokuhisa, Tamao. "Tourism within, from and to Japan." International Social Science Journal 32.1 (1980): 128–150.
• Uzama, Austin. "Yokoso! Japan: Classifying foreign tourists to Japan for market segmentation." Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management 21.2 (2012): 132–154.
• Yanagi, Miyuki. "Reconsideration of Japan's tourism innovation characteristics." Geographical Research Bulletin 2 (2023): 29–38. online
• Yasuda, Hiroko. "World heritage and cultural tourism in Japan." International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research 4.4 (2010): 366–375.