## Promoting Tourism in Time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games

In FY2014, the MLIT took part in “Japan Omotenashi Pavillion,” which was run from June 12 to July 13, 2014 in a unified governmental-private endeavor at FIfA World Cup Brazil held in Brazil, to promote the charms of Japan to the global soccer fans that gathered there and to play Japanese tour promotion videos and sponsor special events, etc. featuring Japanese fashion, traditional art and pop cultures to get them better know of Japan and cherish desires to visit Japan. Efforts made to condition the environment for receiving inbound foreign tourists include developing and promoting a free public wireless LAN environment, improving on multilingual support, reinforcing reception of Muslim tourists, simplifying and expediting the procedural flow of immigration at airports and ports, including improved CIQ, enhancing the means of secondary transportation, improving on the payment environment and more.

## 2 Approaches to Expanding Inbound Tourism Drastically

The Visit Japan Campaign has been run in a unified “All Japan” effort of public and private sectors to promote the charms of Japanese tourism to stir inbound Japanese tourism.

The campaign has focused on the nations holding a prospective population of visitors to Japan (Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany) by launching: a. Projects targeting overseas travel agencies, such as inviting them or putting joint tour ads; b. Projects targeting overseas consumers, such as putting overseas ads and inviting overseas media; c. Regional collaborative projects jointly implemented in a wide area by Transport Bureaus, etc. with local authorities to grab foreign tourists; and d. Approaches to promoting inbound Japanese tourism in a unified “All Japan” of with the government ministries and agencies concerned, including overseas diplomatic establishments abroad, and private enterprises.

## 3 Fueling Japanese Travel with Eased Visa Requirements, etc

Requirements for multiple-entry visa approval were relaxed for Indonesians, Filipinos and Vietnamese on September 30, 2014 and procedures for applying for single-entry visas were simplified on November 20 of the same year. An exemption of visas subject to prior registration of microchipped passports was granted to Indonesians on December 1 of the same year. Multiple-entry visas for Indians were introduced on July 3 of the same year, followed by a decision to introduce multiple-entry visas for Brazilians in August. In addition, the requirements for multiple-entry visas for Chinese were relaxed effective January 19, 2015.

Feasibility studies of a long-term stay plan were also carried forward to help capture the demand for longer-term stays among overseas wealthy travelers.

(Notes) 1 Parentheses enclose the percentage shares of the total number of inbound foreign tourists. 2 "Others" includes unaccounted-for nations and regions from Asia, Europe and elsewhere. 3 Values may not add up to totals because their fractions are rounded.

Source) Prepared by the Japan Tourism Agency from data available from the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO)