Tourism in Japan

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Himeji-jō (UNESCO World Heritage)

Japan is a country that is open to tourism almost everywhere . Due to the high degree of industrialization in the country, tourism only plays a very minor role as an economic sector. In the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 of the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks fourth out of 136 countries.

Foreign tourists

Foreign tourists by country of origin

Because of the high cost of living and the relatively long flight time from Europe or North America , the number of foreign tourists from these regions is relatively small. The majority of the foreign visitors to Japan come from surrounding Asian countries such as South Korea or the PRC . Especially the Chinese tourists, some of whom have high purchasing power , are particularly targeted by Japan. In 2010, for example, the visa regulations for Chinese were relaxed in order to encourage more tourists from China to travel to Japan. In 2010 the total was 8.6 million, a small number in relation to the country's population. Tourism collapsed in 2011 due to the major earthquake and nuclear disaster in Fukushima in March 2011. However, since 2013, Japan has seen an unprecedented increase in foreign tourist arrivals. In 2017, their number rose to 28.7 million, an increase of almost 20 percent compared to the previous year (24 million). Encouraged by this development, the Japanese government doubled its original target of 30 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2030 to 60 million in 2016.

Domestic tourists

The Japanese themselves are keen domestic tourists, so each place in the country tries to highlight its own tourist qualities. Particular importance is attached to the local characteristics. Bus and train networks extend into small towns. In every city there is a tourist information office near the train station, which has city maps and information material, mostly in a limited selection in English (rarely also in German). In many places, local attractions such as castles and temples are open to tourists. Traditional handicrafts and dishes of the region are cultivated. Small museums are scattered across the country, filling all sorts of niches from traditional culture to modern art to completely unexpected things (such as a museum for classic American cars in Kyushu ). Another example is the Museum of Modern Glass Art on Niijima Island .

Japanese companies demand a high level of loyalty from their employees; it is therefore common for salarymen to forego part of their vacation entitlement. Travel takes place at three main times when the whole country is on vacation. On the one hand, there is the Golden Week in May, the Obon week ( depending on the region in July or August) and the New Year. A vacation of more than a week in a row is unusual in Japan. Longer trips can only be carried out easily as a student or as a pensioner and without particularly long-term clarification with the company. Nevertheless, Japanese companies are very careful to offer their employees relaxation, and so tours with the entire department are common, which are also supposed to maintain social cohesion within the company. Many companies also have their own accommodations in tourist resorts.

Japanese tourists follow a pattern of their own in their travels, and the industry is totally geared towards this. The Japanese mostly go on short trips and return the same or the next day. You set off as early as possible in the morning in order to see as much as possible at your destination, on the route recommended in the brochure. A photo is taken of important sights. For those who stayed at home, omiyage , souvenirs, mostly in the form of sweets or local handicrafts, are bought. Parks, temples and museums in Japan usually close at 5 p.m., as this is the time when tourists return to their accommodation or to a sometimes very luxurious traditional Japanese hotel called a ryokan . An inexpensive variant of the ryokan is a minshuku . There one takes a dinner, mostly of local specialties; it is proper form for a good ryokan owner to be trained in local cuisine. Upscale ryokans also have their own real onsen for relaxation, and all offer a hot bath. Some tourist places also offer night life with corresponding bars.

deals

nature

Fuji
The Japanese Alps as seen from the Kamikōchi

Tourist magnets are also viewpoints that offer particularly beautiful views of nature. After urbanization turned many plains into concrete seas and the rivers disappeared under the asphalt, the Japanese long for places where nature is still pristine. Large parts of Japan, around 80% of the country's area, are only sparsely populated because they are mountains that are difficult to access or remote islands. There are even ranking lists with the most beautiful viewpoints for each region.

Winter sports

Hokkaidō, the northernmost island, lies under a thick blanket of snow in winter and is therefore a popular winter sports area. In 1972 Sapporo hosted the Winter Olympics . Another attraction is the Sapporo Snow Festival .

The inland of Honshū consists mainly of rugged mountains, so that there is also a high level of snow reliability here, even in March, when the cherry blossom season already begins in Kyūshū. The most famous winter sports resort on Honshū is Nagano and especially Hakuba , also an Olympic city (1998) .

Amusement parks

The economic boom of the 1980s, when investment capital was in abundance, also gave rise to a large number of amusement parks , some of which were very successful, e.g. B. Tokyo Disneyland . Other theme parks had to close after the economic bubble burst or are struggling to survive.

Wellness

The almost innumerable hot springs due to volcanic activity are an extremely important branch of tourism in Japan. The tradition of health resorts offering relaxation in the natural hot springs ( onsen ) dates back to the Edo period . A variant of the onsen is a bath in hot sand, a specialty of spas like Beppu . The massage has a long tradition in Japan, masseur was in ancient Japan, a possible profession for the blind. Since the generation that built up Japan after the Second World War became financially well-off pensioners (so-called 熟 年 , jukunen ), Japan's health resorts, especially on the Izu Peninsula , have experienced a boom.

Japanese tourists abroad

According to the " Henley Passport Index " of January 7, 2020, the Japanese can travel to 191 countries without a visa or with a visa on arrival (Germans: 189 countries, Austrians and Swiss: 185 each). The Japanese passport is currently the strongest in the world, but according to asia.nikkei.com , only 23 percent of Japanese have one - the lowest percentage among the G-7 countries.

See also

Web links

Commons : Tourism in Japan  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017. Accessed June 2, 2018 .
  2. ↑ asahi.com: Chinese invasion offers a ray of hope to tourist trade ( Memento from May 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), May 20, 2010
  3. ↑ Japanese National Statistics Office, PDF table Visitor Arrivals by Nationality , accessed on January 22, 2014
  4. ↑ derstandard.at: Japan's tourism collapses by 63 percent , May 19, 2011
  5. ^ Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), March 30, 2016: New Tourism Strategy to Invigorate the Japanese Economy , accessed October 21, 2018
  6. ↑ Japan has world's best passport, but few go abroad . Nikkei Asian Review, December 18, 2019.