## 5 Approach and Contributions to Overseas Countries

## (Significant Decline in Tourism Industry)

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2011 showed a significant decline and was approximately 6.22 million (decreased by 27.8% over the previous year) due to the influence and other factors of the Great East Japan Earthquake. However, looking at the monthly change of the number of foreign visitors, amount of decline from the fifth month after the great earthquake (August 2011) is steadily shrinking compared to that of the previous year; thus, it can be considered that recovery measures against the great earthquake and the nuclear power plant accident have been effectively implemented. As for the number of domestic tourists, overall demand for traveling itself recovered to the point of exceeding the demand in the previous year; however, the number of overnight guests at accommodations, which mainly target tourists, is still down.

### (Tourism Promotions, etc.)

Taking into account these situations, it is necessary to re-formulate promotions for overseas travelers in order to deal with the decline in the number of foreign visitors to Japan, upon recovering their trust in safety and security that are the preconditions of visiting.

By July 2011, the MLIT held a total of over 100 presentations overseas in collaboration with the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), diplomatic establishments overseas, and other organizations in addition to inviting a total of approximately 800 companies and 1,000 media and travel agencies from abroad under the VISIT JAPAN Urgent Response Project. Moreover, we resumed the promotion of attractions in Japan to consumers through websites and magazines from October 2011, and from January 2012 further strengthened the promotion in the five largest markets (Korea, China, Taiwan, the United States, and Hong Kong) where there are especially high numbers of tourists to Japan. Furthermore, we put effort in developing an environment to accept foreign visitors in order to prevent cancellation of

Chart. 77 Change in the Number of Foreign Visitors

Note: 1 Values in ( ) are the ratios over the previous fiscal year.

2 Values are provisional values through January 2012 and they are estimated values from February.

Source: Developed by MLIT from the materials of JNTO

international conferences, etc., and to recover demand in the future. As a result, there have been positive effects that the current situations in Japan are reported accurately in other countries, and that travel agencies have begun resuming the sale of the tours, which they had suspended, and creating and selling new travel packages. Additionally, the MLIT conducted the “Japan. Thank You.” campaign from February 2012 by creating a special logo and posters, and displaying banners in major cities, such as Tokyo, Yokohama, and New York, to strengthen the bond between Japan and the world and to recover the demand for visiting Japan.

## (Countermeasures against Harmful Rumors on Trading)

At the ports in Japan that are the gateways for export trading, overseas shipping companies, etc., were concerned about calling at the ports in Japan or about the safety of the goods shipped out from Japan. Therefore, the MLIT summarized the radiation doses in the air and seawater measured at the ports in Tokyo Bay and afflicted areas, and publicly released the information everyday on the MLIT website in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean (it was updated twice a day at first and it became once a week as of the April 2012). Then we notified the concerned agencies, such as the port manager of each country and the customs, etc., of this information through our diplomatic channels. Through these measures, we provided accurate information about each port in Japan, eliminated the concerns of shipping companies and crews, maintained the calls at the ports in Japan and showed the safety of the goods shipped out from Japan to overseas ports.

Additionally, we subsidized the installation of a stationary radiation counter at Keihin Port in order to prevent return, waiting for ships, and delays in cargo handling, etc., if radiation contamination is found at an overseas port to which the goods are exported.

Also in the shipbuilding industry, overseas ship owners were also concerned about residual radioactive substances on ships and ship supplies built or manufactured in Japan. In response, the MLIT accepted the requests from shipbuilding-related companies and strived to eradicate damages due to harmful rumors by issuing confirmation certificates to prove that the results of radiation measurements conducted by the companies for the ships, etc., manufactured in Japan were obtained by an appropriate measuring method.