Tag - tourism

 
 

TOURISM

The Toyama City Library, designed by Kengo Kuma, in November. The library is part of a building called Toyama Kirari that also houses the Glass Art Museum.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 8, 2025
New York Times chooses Toyama and Osaka as top places to go in 2025
The city of Toyama was praised by the Times as a place where tourists could “enjoy cultural wonders and culinary delights while skipping the crowds.”
Scheduled to welcome its first guests in early 2025, the Waldorf Astoria Osaka is just one of many luxury hotel openings Japan has seen in recent months.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 4, 2025
Japan’s ‘quiet revolution’ of luxury travel nears fruition
“The Japanese luxury travel scene has undergone quite the metamorphosis over the past decade,” says one industry insider.
Tonoike Sake Brewery has been gearing their brewery toward tourism since the late 1980s, attempting to lure tourists to the town of Mashiko.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 3, 2025
Traveling for sake's sake: The emergence of brewery tourism in Japan
While sake consumption has declined in Japan, breweries across the nation are taking advantage of a rise in overseas interest to promote themselves as tourist destinations.
An advertisement in Tokyo's Kabukicho, Japan's largest red-light district. The country is home to a thriving adult entertainment industry and has recently seen a boom in sex tourism fueled by the weak yen and availability of red-light services.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 30, 2024
From geisha to oshikatsu, toxic tropes fuel sex industry
It isn't only the foreign gaze that produces stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive and promiscuous. Local laws and cultural norms play just as important a role.
International students and others participate in a disaster preparedness drill in Osaka City, where disaster information was conveyed in foreign languages.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2024
Noto quake inspires more focus on getting disaster info to non-Japanese
The earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1 highlighted the need to help foreign nationals who do not speak Japanese be more informed.
JR Kyushu concluded that it will not be able to guarantee the safety of the Queen Beetle high-speed passenger ferry operations even after safety measures are taken.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024
JR Kyushu to end passenger ship operations after water leak incident
JR Kyushu Jet Ferry covered up a water leak incident on its high-speed passenger ferry linking Hakata Port with the city of Busan in South Korea.
A strawberry sales area at the Motegi roadside rest station in the town of Motegi, Tochigi Prefecture. As part of measures to address the shortage of successors, the roadside rest station is collaborating with farmers and others to sell locally grown agricultural products.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2024
Support planned for roadside rest stations as regional development hubs
The facilities, which started out mainly as rest places for drivers, have taken on wide-ranging roles, from tourism and agriculture to disaster prevention.
Ginzan Onsen hot springs in Obanazawa, Yamagata Prefecture
JAPAN / Society
Dec 23, 2024
Picturesque Japan hot spring town limits day trippers
Authorities in Ginzan Onsen have become fed up with a rise in road problems, quarrels and other nuisances.
Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Dec 23, 2024
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?
Inbound tourism to Japan reached a record high in 2024, but managing the crowds and ensuring sustainability remain a challenge.
A venue for the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2024
Ride-hailing restrictions to be eased during 2025 Osaka Expo
To meet visitors' demand for transport between April and October, 24-hour operations are to be allowed throughout Osaka Prefecture.
Foreign tourists visit Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo in June.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2024
Japan breaks annual visitor record with 33.4 million in just 11 months
November saw 3.19 million foreign visitors for business and leisure, according to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization.
People walk toward a beach in Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2024
Blackstone buys Ritz-Carlton Okinawa as Japan tourism booms
The transaction will include the Kanehide Kise Beach Palace and money to be spent on renovations, sources say.
New fencing was installed along the sidewalk near a convenience store in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Monday to prevent tourists from jaywalking and to improve safety.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2024
New fencing installed to help manage tourists at Mount Fuji photo spot
The area in Fujikawaguchiko, a popular photography spot because of how Mount Fuji rises behind the convenience store, has gained traction on social media.
A worker walks along the partially snowless slope at the William F. Rogers Ski Area at Massachusetts' Blue Hills in January.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 17, 2024
Companies challenged by fewer weeks of winter
Warmer winters also impact everything from sports to drinking water and even seasonal allergies.
Disney and Oriental Land executives pose with Disney characters at the unveiling of an expanded cruise line, in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2024
Tokyo Disney Resort operator eyes cruises for new growth
The company plans to invest approximately ¥330 billion in the project, hoping to launch services in fiscal 2028.
Tour guides wait to collect tour groups from Hong Kong outside the Shenzhen Bay border crossing in Shenzhen, China
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2024
Educated young Chinese turn to tour guiding as job market wavers
Tour guiding is becoming an increasingly popular fallback option in a China rife with employment instability as the economy slows.
Climbers on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, in July. The prefecture implemented a ¥2,000 fee per climber starting last year, while neighboring Shizuoka Prefecture is planning to collect ¥4,000 per climber starting in 2025.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024
Shizuoka Prefecture aims to collect ¥4,000 from all Mount Fuji climbers
The proposal for an entry fee for Japan's highest mountain is designed to ease congestion at the site and prevent dangerous attempts to scale the peak.
The JR Kyushu group has been working on raising safety awareness among employees, repairing the ship and enhancing governance, with the aim of resuming the Queen Beetle high-speed passenger ship operations.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024
JR Kyushu may end South Korea ship route over water leak scandal
JR Kyushu Jet Ferry covered up water ingress on the Queen Beetle high-speed passenger ship for more than three months.
A protester wears a mask depicting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a rally calling for his impeachment, in Seoul, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / ANALYSIS
Dec 12, 2024
South Korea's soft power gains at risk from extended political crisis
How the country — a top global destination for medical and plastic surgery tourism — gets through the period of uncertainty will impact foreign visitor numbers.
The town of Futaba is still dealing with the effects of 3/11, but that isn't stopping some residents from looking forward.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 7, 2024
Futaba pivots to 'hope tourism' to revive its fortunes
Whether you’re a long-term resident of Japan or flying in for a holiday, the message is clear: Futaba welcomes you.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick