strategies. The MLIT shall move to implement an action plan and engage in the development of an environment to enable more private companies to embark on overseas development.

Column

# India's high speed railway

Column

In the Japan-India summit meeting in Delhi, India, on December 12, 2015, both governments signed the memorandum of cooperation regarding the introduction of the Shinkansen system into the high-speed railway between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Since the Indian government announced the plan for a high-speed railway in 2009, we had energetically worked, while cooperating with relevant ministries for top-to-top selling through working level jobs in partnership with the private sector, toward the introduction of the Shinkansen system to India. Specifically, we had conducted the Joint Feasibility Study for Mumbai—Ahmedabad High-Speed Railway Corridor, research of the business aspect of this plan, as a cooperative project between Japan and India from December 2013 to June 2015 and had held seminars on high-speed railways four times in India since 2012 while inviting key Indian government officials to Japan in order to promote their understanding of Japan's railway technology, including the Shinkansen system (Figure 3-1-10). In particular, at the International Railway

Equipment Exhibition (IREE2015) in October in 2015, Japan participated as a partner country and promoted our high-quality railways, including the Shinkansen system of greater safety and accuracy.

As the results of our continuous and vigorous approaches in the past, and the formation of the public opinion that appreciates Japan's railway technology in the relevant regions, we reached an agreement on the introduction of the Shinkansen system to the high-speed railway system between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. From now on as well, we will work together with the relevant ministries in partnership with the private sector toward realization of the first route for a high-speed railway in India.

Figure 3-1-10 Prime minister Modi of India visits Japan

Source) Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet (http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/97_abe/actions/201512/12india.html)

## 2 The incorporation of inbound visitors and infrastructure

(1) Analyzing trends concerning inbound foreign tourists

(Trends in terms of inbound visits and the status of consumption by country)

According to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the number of overseas tourists to Japan in 2015 rose by 4.4 percent on a year-on-year basis (approximately 50 million tourists) to approximately 1,184 million tourists. This number has been rising rapidly since 2010. With respect to the Japanese economy, the domestic market is expected to shrink due to the reduction in the size of the population. It is thus important to integrate demand for inbound tourism from overseas and harness tourism as a trump card for regional revitalization and as a key pillar for a growth strategy designed to enable GDP to reach JPY 600 trillion.

As described in chapter 1, a record number of inbound foreign tourists, 19.74 million, flocked to Japan in 2015 (a year-on-year increase of forty-seven percent) and a record amount of spending by foreign visitors to Japan, JPY 3,477.1 billion, was posted in the same year (a year-on-year increase of seventy-one percent).

In particular, demand on the part of inbound tourists from Asia has increased, with the number of inbound foreign tourists and the amount of spending in 2015 both accounting for approximately eighty percent of their respective totals (Figure 3-1-11 and 3-1-12).