The main factors behind the very positive growth in international arrivals in the last few years include relaxing visa restrictions and expanding the tax-free system for foreign tourists along with infrastructure improvements and better promotion.
Some of the main issues and challenges are: the creation of tourist areas of international appeal, the development of human resources for the tourism industry, and investing in additional appropriate infrastructure.
Tourism policy and planning is led by the overarching national strategy for economic growth, the Japan Revitalization Strategy 2016 – Towards the 4th Industrial Revolution. This has a target of achieving the “Biggest Post-War Goal: 600 trillion Yen GDP” by focusing on the following three challenges:
The strategic creation of new promising growth markets,
An “Industrial Revolution” to overcome the lack of workers and wage restrictions resulting from a decreasing population,
The development of personnel to support the new industrial framework.
With respect to new promising growth markets, 10 Public-Private Strategic Projects have been established, with the realisation of Japan as a tourism-oriented country included as one of the projects. Tourism is the trump card for regional revitalisation and is seen as a key pillar in the growth strategy.
To realise the policies to become a tourism-oriented country, a new “Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Plan” was approved by the Cabinet, defining those policies to be enacted by the entire government. The plan, which runs from 2017-2022, establishes four basic national policies:
The development of the private sector economy,
The furtherance of international mutual understanding,
The increased stability of civilian life,
Countermeasures against the risks of fires and accidents.
In addition, the government’s action plan for tourism policies in the “Tourism Vision Realisation Programs 2017” expresses more concrete policies for the coming year and moves towards realisation of that vision.
With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics approaching, Japan is working on various initiatives with a view to becoming a world-class tourist destination. This involves preparing additional infrastructure to accept the expected increase in foreign tourists, dispersing tourists to local areas, revitalising tourism in disaster-struck areas, and dealing with the changing needs of tourists.
Accommodation capacity is an important issue in parts of Japan. Extra capacity is being provided by new accommodation platforms, but these need regulation. In response, a Private Lodging Business Act was introduced in June 2017, which will be enforced from June 2018. This new law defines a set of rules for operating a private lodging. It provides notification and registration systems specifically for operators of private lodgings and for agencies that act as intermediaries between the guests and the operators (Box 1.19).
