million inbound foreign tourists, including a package of measures taken by the whole government, with public and private sectors working in accord, such as an easing of the visa requirements for Southeast Asia since July and the implementation of an inbound Japanese tourism campaign, and the acceleration of the Visit Japan Campaign undertaken by the Japan Tourism Agency to complete by the end of the year to the extent possible and the introduction of additional new projects. Further, cooperation was sought from stakeholders both at home and abroad, including local governments, economic groups and enterprises, in hosting study tours of Japan.

These efforts resulted in the attainment of 10 million inbound foreign tourists for the first time in history on December 20 2013, the 10 $ ^{th} $ anniversary year of the launch of the Visit Japan Campaign.

On December 20 on which the record 10 million was attained, a celebration ceremony was held at Narita International Airport with the presence of Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ohta, who declared the attainment of the 10 million inbound foreign tourists and presented a Thai tourist visiting Japan on a family trip with a token and the like to mark the 10 millionth visitor to Japan.

With the new goal set on attaining another milestone of 20 million inbound foreign tourists by 2020, efforts will be carried on to disseminate information about the exceptional charms of Japan touching the world's people, such as the picturesque four seasons of the nation and rich tourism resources, and safe and clean towns and the mind of hospitality, by taking full advantage of the latest developments now grabbing global attention, such as the selection of Tokyo to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the registration of Mt. Fuji as a World Cultural Heritage and that of Japanese cuisine as an Intangible Cultural Property, in a bid to welcome as many inbound foreign tourists as possible.

A photo of the ceremony held to celebrate the attainment of 10 million visitors to Japan

Source) Japan Tourism Agency

## (3) Trends in the tourism industry

### a. Travel trade

The volume of transactions by 58 major travel agencies in FY2013 totaled about 6,485.5 billion yen (up 3.7% from the previous year), broken down into overseas tours with about 2,270.5 billion yen (down 1.0%), domestic tours with about 4,131.8 billion yen (up 6.0%) and inbound foreign tours with about 83.2 billion yen (up 26.1%).

### b. Registered hotels and Japanese inns

The rate of room occupancy at major registered hotels in FY2012 stood at 73.3% (up 5.5% from the previous year). The rate of room occupancy at major registered Japanese inns advanced 58.5% (up 0.7%). Among the major registered hotels and inns, 68.1% of the hotels were in a surplus (up 20.2%), and 59.3% of the inns (up 16%).

## Section 2 Approaches to Forging a Tourism Nation

Since the “Action Program toward the Realization Japan as a Tourism Nation” was approved on June 11, 2013 at a meeting of the Ministerial Conference on the Promotion of a Tourism Nation held in the Prime Minister’s initiative, the whole government, and public and private sectors have worked in accord to implement it. In the wake of the attainment of the 2013 goal of 10 million inbound foreign tourists, deliberations commenced at the meeting of the Ministerial Conference held in January 2014 towards making amendments to the existing Action Program to attain another milestone of 20 million inbound foreign tourists by 2020.