Japan is finally getting serious about attracting some foreign visitors to its shores.
The government, which hopes to double the number of foreign tourists to 10 million by 2010, has already earmarked 2 billion yen for the current fiscal year for a Visit Japan campaign, mainly targeting people in South Korea, Taiwan, the United States, China and Hong Kong.
"The government came up with the campaign after reviewing its past measures to boost the number of visitors, for which not enough money was allocated," said an official at the tourism department of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry. "We have finally started what many other countries and their leaders have earnestly implemented as a matter of national policy."