Looking at the regional ratio of the number of duty-free shops, approximately 70% are in the 3 Major Metropolitan Areas (Figure 2-1-67). From now on, proactively increasing the number of duty-free shops in the shopping districts of the Rural Areas will be necessary in order to induce the travel consumption of the foreign visitors. From April 1, 2015, it has become possible to consign the tax exemption procedure to a third party, so that places like local shopping districts and local product sale centers can set up Tax Exemption Processing Counters where the duty-free sales can be handled collectively (Figure 2-1-68). This will eliminate the worries about having to deal with foreign languages and the cumbersome tax exemption procedures,

Figure 2-1-65

Items Purchased in Japan by Foreign Visitors (2014)

Breakdown of Shopping Costs

Expense item	Rate of Purchase	Unit Price per Purchaser
Confectionary	63.6%	9,779
Other Food Products, Beverages, Alcohol, Cigarettes	51.7%	11,464
Clothing (excluding Kimono), Bags, Shoes	37.2%	32,343
Cosmetics, Perfume	31.9%	22,312
Medicine, Health goods, Toiletries	31.8%	18,341
Japanese Clothing (kimono), Folk Crafts	14.0%	12,538
Electronic Products	13.5%	40,942
Manga comics, anime merchandise, Character-related Products	12.0%	10,967
Books, Picture Postcards, CDs, DVDs	11.0%	6,370
Other Shopping Costs	9.9%	25,011
Cameras, Video Cameras, Watches	9.4%	65,626

Source) "Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan" by Japan Tourism Agency

Figure 2-1-66

Purchaser Unit Price Based on Using or Not Using Consumption Tax Exemption Procedure

(Note) Counted the responses of tourists for the period October to December of 2014. Source) "Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan (Topic Analysis)" by Japan Tourism Agency

so that it is anticipated that there will be an increase in duty-free shops in the local shopping malls of the Rural Areas. It is hoped that the travel consumption amount will also increase, as the troublesome tax exemption procedures will be made easier for the foreign visitors, allowing them to be able to judge the purchase limit on the duty-free sales by combining their purchases from various stores at the tax exemption processing counter.

In addition, a notification system dealing with the export product sales points in the harbors that are ports of call for ocean-going cruise ships has been established. As a result, it has become easier to set up a temporary duty-free shop at the cruise pier (such as the docking pier of cruise ships and passenger ship terminals). This promotes the selling of local specialty products to foreign travellers at the cruise ship’s pier, where the duty-free items can be taken onboard straight after purchase.

Furthermore, in March 2015 the common logo was decided for indicating service points for “Hands-Free Travel”, a service available to foreign visitors to have items they purchased at duty-free shops to be temporarily held or be shipped. From now on, by promoting the displaying of the common logo at a places like the one-step counter to spread the recognition rate of “Hands-Free Travel” among the foreign travellers visiting Japan, it is expected that a further demand for shopping will be stimulated.