Figure 1-2-5-5 Transitions in inbound demand

(Source) Consumption Patterns of Overseas Visitors, Japan Tourism Agency, and Transitions in Inbound Tourists, JNTO

### b. Examples of initiatives by enterprises

The following paragraphs give examples of enterprises using ICT to stimulate inbound demand.

## (i) Initiatives by ICT enterprises

Toshiba, in partnership with Toshiba Tec, launched an end-to-end inbound service in November 2015. An ICT-based promotion and customer service tool for businesses that deal with overseas tourists, the service runs on Toshiba ICT and Toshiba Tec's POS systems and duty-free processing and multiple-payment services. By integrating these systems with data on overseas tourists' consumption patterns and purchases, Toshiba's service handles out-of-country promotions to tourists before they come to Japan, sightseeing excursions while traveling in Japan, and duty-free sales procedures and payment services when travelers make purchases. The benefits of the service for businesses are simplified operations (lower costs) and enhanced promotional capability, while providing useful information and convenience to travelers.

## (ii) Initiatives by ICT user enterprises

Enterprises that use ICT but are not ICT enterprises themselves are looking at how to use ICT to provide ICT-based services and applications and to promote efficient collaborations between different industries (Figure 1-2-5-6).

Figure 1-2-5-6 Examples of ICT-based inbound strategies taken by enterprises that apply ICT

Field	Examples
Manufacturing	A trend seen among manufacturers is making capital investments to retool domestic factories in order to provide more made-in-Japan products. For example, Kosé is spending some 6 billion yen to build a new production wing at its Gunma plant in Isesaki that will be completed by 2017. The added production facility will enable Kosé to ramp up production of its mid-price and luxury makeup cosmetics to meet future sales growth.
Travel	The inbound tourism travel company HAnavi was established in November 2014 by H.I.S. and ANA to take advantage of their complementary strengths: H.I.S.'s network of overseas branches and its domestic hotel reservation system and ANA's ability to deliver customers to H.I.S. The company started operations in April 2015. HAnavi addresses many overseas travelers' needs by enabling them to mix and match ANA's 115 domestic routes to 51 cities with hotels around the country via H.I.S.'s Sumayado hotel reservation site.
Transportation	Tokyo Metro is planning to install free Wi-Fi services for overseas guests in all stations and on all trains. (Wi-Fi had been installed at 108 stations as of March 2016.)
Retailing	In response to the expanded scope of products exempt from consumption taxes on October 1, 2014, department stores, supermarkets, mass electronics retailers, and other large retailers made enhancements to their stores to better serve overseas travelers, such as free public Wi-Fi installations and upgraded POS systems that simplify duty-free sales transactions. For example, Aeon, a large retail chain, added selections for English, Chinese, and Korean, as well as Japanese, to its in-store touch panels and posted multilingual in-store signage and directions and currency exchange information (Aeon Bank). The retailer also ran store-visit promotions, such as distributing coupons at 200 Aeon stores throughout Asia.