COVER STORY • Exploring Future Relations in East Asia • 6Observations on
Inbound Tourism —Japan’s Soft Power
Author Naoyuki Haraoka

By Naoyuki Haraoka

Introduction
The number of inbound tourists visiting Japan from around theworld reached 8.28 million in the second quarter of 2018, doublethat of the first quarter of 2015, according to the Japan National
Tourism Organization (JNTO) (Chart 1). On an annually adjusted
basis, the total for 2018 will be more than 30 million.
As seen in Chart 2, in 2017 the number of inbound tourists toJapan reached 28.69 million — the 12th largest number in the world
and the fourth in Asia. Given that Japan will host the Rugby World
Cup in 2019 and the Olympics and Paralympics in 2020, we can
expect inbound tourism to Japan to be in the top 10 in the world by
2020. According to the JNTO, the majority of foreign visitors camefrom Asia — around 7.05 million in the second quarter of 2018,
almost 90% of the total. Among those Asian tourists, around 2.70
million came from China and Hong Kong, around 1.90 million fromSouth Korea and around 1.40 million from Taiwan, and thus morethan 80% of them were from those three areas in East Asia.
Chart 1 also shows a steady increase in inbound tourists’consumption in Japan. It reached more than $10 billion in thesecond quarter of 2018, quite a significant sum. In this context as
well, visitors from China, Taiwan, and South Korea accounted foralmost 60% of total consumption, with shares of 32%, 13.4% and11.6% respectively. Shopping topped the list of spending categories
at 34.7%, followed by hotel expenses at 28.5% and meal expenses at
22.8%, according to JNTO research.
These statistics raise two points related to our main topic in thisissue, namely future relations among East Asian nations. One is thatsuch a significant number of tourists from East Asia could increase
Japan’s soft power in achieving better foreign relations in the region.
The other is that the impact of those tourists’ consumption isimportant for the Japanese economy.
On the first point, it is self-evident that tourism alone, whether it
increases significantly or not in East Asia, will not be crucial toresolving the challenges in foreign policy we are facing at thismoment. However, the continued sustainability of tourism growthamong the nations of East Asia would contribute to a certain degree
to long-term stability in foreign relations in the region. This may be

CHART 1

Trends in inbound tourists in Japan & their spending
1,000

20,000Total spending by tourists

Number of inbound tourists visiting Japan
722

Spending by tourists

16,00012,000
8,000

535

501
413
8,893

10,009

525

8,804

575

626

596

606

744

9,534

9,716

8,922

762

11,40011,121800

654
12,306

9,305

828

749

9,680

10,776600
11,233

400

7,065

4,000
0

200

1st
quarter

2ndquarter

3rdquarter

4thquarter

1stquarter2015

2ndquarter

3rdquarter

2016

4thquarter

1stquarter

2ndquarter

3rdquarter

2017

4thquarter

1stquarter

2ndquarter0

Number of inbound tourists visiting Japan(10,000 people)(100 million yen)(preliminary (preliminary
estimate) estimate)2018

Source: Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)
http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/siryou/toukei/syouhityousa.html

26 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2019https://www.jef.or.jp/journal/

COVER STORY 6

CHART 2Comparison of inbound tourism by country/areafor 2107
France86,918

Spain

No.1

81,786

US

75,868

China

60,740Italy

58,253Mexico39,298

UK

37,651

Turkey37,601

Germany

37,452ThailandNo.10

35,381

Austria

29,460Japan

28,691

Hong Kong

27,885Greece12th in the world, 4th in Asia

27,194

Malaysia

25,948Russia24,390

Canada20,798

Poland

18,400Portugal

18,200Netherlands

No.20

17,924Macau

17,255

Saudi Arabia

16,109UAE

15,790Hungary

15,785

Croatia

15,593

India

15,543

Ukraine14,230Singapore

13,906South Korea

13,336

Indonesia

No.30

12,948Vietnam

12,922

Czech Republic

12,808Morocco11,349Switzerland

11,133

Denmark

10,781

Taiwan10,740South Africa

10,285

Ireland10,100Bulgaria

8,883

Australia

8,815
0

20,000No.40
40,00060,00080,000100,000(1,000 people)

Source: UNWTO Compilation: Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)
https://www.jnto.go.jp/jpn/statistics/visitors_ranking.pdf

similar to the effect of student exchanges among nations, notworking to resolve foreign policy issues but contributing to better
relations in general.
On the second point, since the sum of tourist consumption
remains a small percentage of total GDP — only around 1% ofJapan’s GDP in the second quarter of 2018 — it has not had asignificant impact on the macroeconomy yet. However, such asignificant increase in inbound tourism will encourage the Japanese

tourism industry to be better prepared, and this will require much
more investment in facilities such as hotels, museums, andtransportation. Thus, total GDP should increase rather significantly inthe long run. So this economic question would eventually have apositive answer.
The first question about East Asian relations is the main coverstory of the Japan SPOTLIGHT January/February 2019 issue and I
will address it in the following sections.
Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 201927

COVER STORY 6Interviews with Tourists Visiting Ginza
Whether tourists enjoy their visit to Japan and whether they like
Japan and Japanese people would be key points in assessing any
long-term positive impact on our foreign relations. It would be worth
trying to hear their views directly.
The Japan Economic Foundation (JEF) office is in Ginza, close to
Matsuya Department Store, one of the most frequently visited tourist
shopping venues. We often hear that many tourists visiting Ginza
spend a large amount of money on a variety of Japanese products,
ranging from stationery to luxury goods. Taking advantage of our
location, we organized a short survey among tourists visiting Ginzafrom around 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018.
The weather was a little cloudy but generally fine. We listed 10questions for the tourists, focusing on their motivation for visiting
Japan, whether they were enjoying their stay, what they find goodabout Japan and what they find annoying or embarrassing, and how
they think Japanese services for inbound tourists could be improved.
We had two college students who volunteered to help us in thesestreet interviews — Adon Chu, a third-year student at Keio University
from Hong Kong who has studied in Japan for three years, and Arpita
Victor, a first year student at Soka University from India who is an
exchange student between Soka and St. Stephen’s College in Delhi.
Chu kindly translated our list of English questions into Chinese andput them to Chinese tourists, while Victor talked in English with nonChinese tourists in a humorous and candid manner. Thanks to their
hard work and pleasant demeanor, we had several successfulinterviews, though some tourists were unable to answer all thequestions due to their tight schedules, as in cases of large numbersof Chinese tourists travelling on a group tour. The views of some ofthese tourists interviewed by our two students (Photo) are given here.

Arpita Victor (left) & Adon Chu

28 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2019

Four cases of Chinese tourists
1. The first person interviewed came from southern China with herfamily. She joined a group tour organized by a travel agent in
China. She found in the organized tour that they could spend only
a very limited time in each spot and not as much as she wished.
This was her first visit to Japan. She believed Japan to be a clean
country with beautiful natural scenery. She wanted to discover
more about the people and culture of Japan. She said she was
enjoying the landscapes and was particularly amazed by thestunning view of Mt. Fuji. She found Japanese people very
patriotic. She wants to visit Japan again to go to Hokkaido, as she
did not have time to do so on this visit. She would like to enjoy
more great views there and also sample the cuisine. She said one
problem is the language barrier. Although she found interesting
objects in her trip, she could not find out exactly what they were,
because there were no descriptions available in Chinese.
2. The second person came from Guangdong Province with her
friends and colleagues on a company trip. Although it was hercompany that decided to visit Japan, she was interested in Japanand wanted to know more about Japanese people on her first
visit. In her stay, she went shopping and visited historical sites
and attractions, as well as hot springs. She was also interested inJapanese food. She found Japanese services everywhere to bevery high quality and very pleasant. That was the most amazingpart of her trip to Japan.
3. The third person came from Hunan Province with her friends on agroup tour. Since this was her first visit to Japan, she also wanted
to know more about the country and to compare it with her own.
She was interested in the differences between the two nations andwanted to know how advanced Japan is and how China could
improve to catch up with Japan. She also wanted to enjoy
shopping and eating Japanese food. She found that Japan is avery clean country and overall Japanese people had goodmanners and were rule-abiding. She also believes that Japaneseare doing well in ensuring food safety. Before she came to Japan,
she thought that Japanese people might be hostile to Chinese due
to historical reasons. But after visiting Japan, she thought thatJapanese people are generally very kind and their tourism service
is excellent. Some shops even hire Chinese students to serve
Chinese customers, which made her feel at home. She wants tovisit Japan again. On a different note, she was a bit annoyed by
the language barrier and the complexity of the Japanese subway
system. She also found Japanese sex shops a bit embarrassing
and thought that the Japanese are more open about them than the
Chinese, who are more reserved about sex in general. She was a
bit disappointed that everything was more expensive than she had
expected, and was a bit annoyed in particular to see that someitems at the shops which her tour guide took her to were very

COVER STORY 6

expensive. She said she thinks a large number of tourists will
surely come to Japan for the Rugby World Cup or the Tokyo
Olympics and Paralympics, but she would not choose thoseoccasions to visit Japan again as it will be overwhelmingly
crowded, given that the trains in big cities are even now alreadyso packed. She thinks it will be very difficult to reserve hotel
accommodation during those periods. Japan would need to makesure that visitors can find transportation routes easily, and she
thinks that promoting the use of travel navigation applications fora smartphone in a visitor’s first language would be one way of
doing this.
4. The fourth person came from Hefei in Anhui Province. She loves
Japanese culture and that is the reason why she has already been
in Japan three times. This was her fourth visit, traveling with herfamily on a self-guided tour. She was planning to shop and visit
historical attractions, as well as sample Japanese cuisine and stayat hot springs. She was very much impressed by Japan’s highquality service and culture each time she visited the country, andfinds Japanese people to be very nice. She does not find anything
annoying or embarrassing in Japan and would like to come backto Japan again. She is happy overall with tourism services, but
thinks it would be great if public transport could provide Chinese
tourists with more information in Chinese. She thinks the Rugby
World Cup and Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be goodoccasions for Japan to welcome more tourists, but believes there
are not so many things that need to be improved in Japan’s
tourism services.

Three cases of non-Chinese tourists
1. First, a Singaporean couple travelling with their family. They havebeen to Japan three times. They are enjoying sightseeing andwant to visit Japan again. The language barrier is the biggest
issue for them in travelling in Japan. They find it very intimidating
to go out and socialize. They think the railway system can bemade more accessible by simplifying train schedules. On theoccasions of sports events like the Tokyo Olympics andParalympics, they hope that sports facilities in Japan will be
expanded to hold more people. Although they wanted to gettickets for a tennis match in Japan, they found the tickets had
already sold out.
2. Second, Italian sisters travelling with their friends and family. They
had been in Japan for 10 days on their second visit. They liked
Japanese hot springs and would recommend other people to visit
them. They found Japanese people gentle, polite and ready to help
them if they were in difficulty. They would like to come back toJapan again next spring. What they find weird about Japan is thaton the trains you cannot speak so loudly or talk on the phone.
They also think there should be one single railway pass withwhich they can go anywhere. With this, they would not have to
use a Japan Railway pass and a subway ticket at different points.
That would be time saving. They believe the Tokyo Olympics andother sports events would be a great opportunity to increase
tourism in Japan, and they will maybe come back to Japan after
those events to see how much Tokyo may have been changed bythem.
3. Lastly, an Argentine couple travelling in Japan for a couple ofweeks. Their best experience has been observing the contrast
between the traditional and the modern sides of Japanese people.
Although they have not had any annoying experience in Japan andfound Japanese overall ready to help tourists, they wish they
could communicate with people better, especially in the Japanesecountryside rather than in Tokyo. They find Japan very charming
and would like to come back again. They found traffic signs anddirections clear enough, but it was difficult to buy tickets fortransportation and they were lost in looking for a boarding place
for a long-distance bus service. They think that for thoseupcoming sports events Japan would not need to improve its
tourism facilities, which they find already good enough, with mostsigns and directions being available in English.
Although we had only a small sample, the reactions to our survey
were mostly positive and encouraging in acknowledging the soft
power of tourism in Japan. Most respondents share the view,
however, that the language barrier must be mitigated andtransportation systems could be improved for the interest of tourists.
With such improvements, I think Japan could have even more soft
power in tourism.

Learn from Foreign Tourists
on a Japanese TV Program
Japanese mass media have often focused their attention on
inbound tourists in Japan. One example of this is a documentary
program titled Why Did You Come to Japan? by TV TOKYO
Corporation which began in June 2012 and continues to bebroadcast every Monday evening. We interviewed Yu Ota and Tetsuo
Murakami about the program on Oct. 10, 2018 (Photo). Ota, thecurrent producer of the program, said, “I heard from mypredecessors that they wanted to produce an authentic documentary
program highlighting the true stories of foreign visitors to Japan.”
Murakami, Ota’s predecessor who started this program and now
chief producer of TV TOKYO, said, “We did not aim to highlight thegradually increasing inbound tourism in Japan in 2012 after theGreat East Japan Earthquake in 2011. There was then certainly an
explosive boom in shopping by Chinese tourists and we were trying
to ask some of those tourists to appear on our program, but weJapan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 201929

COVER STORY 6

Yu Ota (left) & Tetsuo Murakami

could not find any. So we decided just to pick any foreign tourists
arriving at Narita Airport and interview them.”
They watch foreign tourists who have just arrived at the airport
and try to interview at random any they find interesting, judging fromtheir appearance. They follow those interviewees from the airport, if
they are allowed, on their trips to many places in Japan and highlighttheir personal stories. Murakami said that the program focuses onwhat an individual foreign tourist finds attractive about Japan andthrough that story they try to show the viewers his or her personal
charms. So they are not trying in particular to highlight or promote
Japanese culture and its attractions for tourists. There have been
many interesting stories so far. Ota related some of them:“There was a French boy who loved Japanese seals (hanko) andcame to Japan to have one made. A story of a Spanish guy travellingby bicycle in Japan was also fascinating. He loved the Japanese
language and in particular the difference in Japanese culture between‘principles’ and ‘real intentions’ (honne and tatemae). He wastravelling from Tokyo to Okinawa in the southwest in order tounderstand this concept better by talking with Japanese people inJapanese, as well as to learn about dialects. An elderly American
couple, an 82-year-old husband and his 73-year-old wife, living in
Florida where the Walt Disney World Resort is located, love Tokyo
Disneyland so much and have been visiting Japan twice a year forthese past 15 years to stay there for two months to enjoy Tokyo
Disneyland’s hospitality. And there was another American from an
island in Alaska, surprised to see in Japan that you can buy beer in a
vending machine and drink it on the street, as in the United States
you would need ID to buy alcohol. He came to Japan to buy beer in a
vending machine and have a drink with his girlfriend.”
Ota also said in trying to find things in common among these30 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2019

tourists he interviewed, “It is difficult to find commonality among the
motivations of tourists who come to Japan. There are a wide rangeof personal reasons, as I mentioned. We can probably say thatanimation is one very common reason for them to be interested inJapan. Pokemon is the most popular Japanese animation among
Americans, while Hayao Miyazaki’s animations are the most popular
ones among Europeans. Girls in general love Sailor Moon.”
Ota warned that any preoccupation with stereotypes about foreign
tourists’ interest in Japan would mislead us in our promotion of
tourism. “They are already informed about good Japaneserestaurants by the Internet. My impression is foreign tourists are
increasingly knowledgeable about Japan. We may not necessarily
have to create a new uniform public infrastructure for tourist
information, as each tourist may be able to acquire the information
they need on their own, depending on their own interests. What we
can do to help and what would be most appreciated by them is totalk to them in broken English in times of difficulty andaccommodate a better Wi-Fi infrastructure, as the language barrier
and availability of Wi-Fi are their common complaints about Japan.”Ota is planning to create a new part of the program called“Olympics YOU” and introduce athletes from various nations training
and studying in Japan in the hope of qualifying for the Tokyo
Olympics and Paralympics. Why Did You Come to Japan? has
become popular abroad in places such as Taiwan and Thailand, andso is proving to be a strong soft power in this regard. Ota alsochanged his views about French people thanks to this work. The
French tourists he met on this program were all friendly and eager tospeak Japanese seriously, like the French boy who loved hanko,
whereas he had previously thought the French in general a bit
difficult to please before starting to work on this program.
The soft power of any nation can be made not only by the nation’s
people but also by tourists coming from overseas or students orworking people staying in the nation. Those foreigners’ diversified
views on the nation’s culture could remind the nation of its own
attractions which it might have forgotten or never been aware of.
Thus the power of a nation’s culture could be enriched and thisprocess of enrichment could itself lead to mitigating the long-term
political challenges. In this light, all the tourists and foreign laborers
rapidly increasing today in Japan are welcome to help enrich
Japanese culture and consolidate its soft power.

Naoyuki Haraoka is editor-in-chief of Japan SPOTLIGHT & executive
managing director of the Japan Economic Foundation (JEF).