Tag - tourism

 
 

TOURISM

A woman uses a transparent translation screen covering 12 languages as a station employee looks on at the Oedo Line's Tochomae Station in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Feb. 29.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 9, 2024
Tokyo subway installs clear translation screen ahead of 2025 events
The system is equipped with a keyboard translates between Japanese and English, Chinese, Spanish and other languages.
The Nanko International Container Terminal in Osaka in February
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2024
Japan current account balance swings to ¥438 billion surplus in January
The turnaround from a whopping ¥2.01 trillion deficit in January 2023 came as Japan's trade deficit was roughly halved to ¥1.44 trillion.
Visitors will be banned from entering private alleys in Kyoto's famous geisha district, Gion, after the district council urged the city to tackle the issue, saying their neighborhood "is not a theme park."
JAPAN / Society
Mar 7, 2024
Tourists banned from private alleys in Kyoto's geisha district
Gion's main Hanamikoji Street, which is public, will remain open to tourists.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said an expert panel will finalize details of the proposed fee for foreign tourists in April.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 7, 2024
Osaka weighs 'entry fee' for foreign tourists in bid to combat overtourism
The proposed fee is separate from the lodging tax already in place for all tourists.
Japan's service sector activity expanded in February, thanks to continued strong demand for inbound tourism.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 5, 2024
Japan's service activity grows on firm tourism
Inbound tourism is an important part of Japan's economy, with annual visitor spending exceeding ¥5 trillion for the first time last year.
Hikers on Mount Fuji's Yoshida trail in Yamanashi Prefecture on Sept. 1, 2023
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2024
Yamanashi to collect ¥2,000 from Mount Fuji climbers
A gate will be installed at the entrance to the Yoshida Trail on the Yamanashi side of Mount Fuji, where fees will be collected from the July 1.
Junior high school students from the inland town of Sumita, Iwate Prefecture, visit the Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum in the city of Rikuzentakata in December.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 4, 2024
Educational tours aim to preserve memory of Tohoku quake
Efforts are being made to ensure lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake are passed on to future generations.
The Iconic Suite's bedroom features recessed lighting and corner windows with sweeping views of the Nagoya metropolis.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 2, 2024
Nagoya’s newest luxury hotel is full of hits and one big miss
The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Nagoya feels ready to deliver top-quality stays — but only if your budget can handle it.
The Tokyo International Cruise Terminal in the Odaiba waterfront area will see a number of port calls by large cruise ships from March onward.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2024
Future looking brighter for Tokyo cruise port in wake of pandemic
The terminal, whose opening four years ago coincided with the beginning of the pandemic, is now coming into its own.
Immersive Fort Tokyo holds a ceremony on Thursday ahead of its Friday opening in Tokyo's Odaiba area.
BUSINESS
Feb 29, 2024
Immersive Fort Tokyo seeks to update theme park experience
The park could become a new landmark in the Odaiba district by the Tokyo Bay as it seeks to update the typical theme park experience.
Aoi Suzuki’s son runs past a home in Taketomi on Iriomote Island (not to be confused with Taketomi Island, which lies to the east of Iriomote). The Suzukis run the Takemori Inn, one of the few hotels on Iriomote.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 29, 2024
[Rebroadcast] Traveling Okinawa with a broken heart
This week on Deep Dive we get contributing writer and photographer Lance Henderstein to read us his article on traveling Okinawa during the rainy season.
The castle from "Howl's Moving Castle" in the brand-new "Valley of Witches" area at Ghibli Park in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 28, 2024
Ghibli Park unveils new 'Valley of Witches' area to open in March
The new area will feature attractions and rides from "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Howl's Moving Castle."
A projection mapping display on the building that hosts the headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Sunday
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 26, 2024
Projection mapping show at Tokyo government building world's biggest
Free year-round shows extend roughly 14,000 square meters from the fourth to 32nd floor of the complex's 48-story Main Building No. 1.
Director of the Akan International Crane Center, Miyuki Kawase, says tourism is incredibly helpful for the birds, but the people who come to take pictures of the birds have to remember they are still wild animals.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 24, 2024
Miyuki Kawase: ‘Experience, whether happy, sad or painful, makes you grow’
The director of the Akan International Crane Center in Hokkaido tells us how she found herself in a career centered around the symbolic white birds.
Passengers line up for security at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 22, 2024
The five most exciting innovations coming to an airport near you
Updating an existing airport terminal is time-consuming, expensive work that often costs hundreds of millions of dollars — and sometimes billions.
Visa-free access for Chinese tourists to Southeast Asia countries boosted traffic and signaled a robust revival in travel since Beijing lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in early 2023 that had all but shut China's borders for three years.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 21, 2024
Chinese tourists flock to Southeast Asia as travel bounces back
The increase provides welcome relief to countries that rely on the Chinese and their spending.
China announced on Sunday that its coast guard would begin regular patrols and set up law enforcement activity around the Taiwan-controlled islands of Kinmen.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 20, 2024
China coast guard 'triggers panic' by boarding Taiwanese tour boat
A Taipei minister said such vessels — both Chinese and Taiwanese — were not illegal and that they commonly enter the other side's waters by accident.
An Ishikawa prefectural official gives information on new places to stay for earthquake evacuees lodging at hotels and inns during a meeting in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Feb. 7.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2024
Departure deadline approaching for Noto quake evacuees in hotels
The extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen on March 16 is expected to lead to a surge in bookings in hotels that have acted as secondary evacuation sites.
Travelers at Shanghai Hongqiao railway station on Feb. 6. For the Feb. 10-17 period, there were 99.5 million rail trips made in China, a figure 36% higher than the comparable period in 2019.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 19, 2024
China’s new year travel and spending top pre-COVID levels
Some 474 million tourist trips were made around the country during the festival, which began Feb. 10 and concluded Saturday.
In Hokkaido’s Niseko ski resort area, a bowl of ramen or soba from a food truck easily goes for more than three times what it costs at a sit-down joint in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Feb 18, 2024
¥3,800 ski-slope ramen is a glimpse of Japan’s future
Foreign tourist spending has potential to stimulate growth but needs careful management to ensure equitable distribution of benefits for locals.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals