LOS ANGELES -- The government plan to privatize Narita airport in 2004 is welcome news to international travelers who know what good travel service is. The plan, which also includes a halt to building new airports, upgrading existing airports and improving customer service, could go a long way toward reversing Japan's image as one of the least tourist-friendly countries in the world.

Just a pleasant smile by airport employees would be an improvement. As it is, despite the fact that Japan is the fourth largest spender for tourist promotion in the world, it ranks only 34th in the number of overseas tourist arrivals. That's right. According to the World Tourism Organization, Japan ranks below Tunisia in annual tourism and has almost the same number of overseas visitors as the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Morocco. Four times more tourists visit tiny Hong Kong each year than end up in Japan.

Obviously this deficit in tourism is not due to a lack of spending on tourism. It is more the result of the kind of one-way thinking that has driven bureaucratic policies at Narita airport. Consistent with government policy, tourism has been treated as a Japanese export business and all that mattered was getting Japanese tourists in and out of the airports. As a result, for every tourist that visits Japan, four Japanese go abroad.