Tourism in Japan

• 1. Introduction

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  Tourism in Japan now touches virtually every corner of a country that, not long ago, actively discouraged foreign visitors. In 2025, Japan welcomed 42.7 million international tourists, a figure that would have seemed impossible just a decade earlier. Total tourism consumption within the country reached 34.3 trillion yen, or roughly $237 billion, in 2024 alone. That amounts to 5.6% of Japan's GDP. The country that ranked as one of the least visited nations in the developed world as recently as 2013 had, within a single generation, become the world's fourth-largest travel and tourism market. How did this happen, and what does it cost? The answers reach back to medieval pilgrims, a Panasonic founder's op-ed, a weakening yen, and a mesh barrier blocking a view of Mount Fuji from a convenience store parking lot.

• 2. Pilgrims and Poets

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  Travel literature in Japan traces its roots to the aristocratic culture of Kyoto in the medieval period. The Tosa Nikki, composed in 935, stands as one of the earliest examples of the genre, followed by passages in the Sarashina Nikki from the 12th century and volume 4 of the Tohazugatari in 1313. These were not casual accounts. They documented journeys undertaken at considerable effort by cultural figures who shaped how Japanese society understood movement through its own landscape.

  By the late medieval period, a practical infrastructure had grown around that impulse to travel. A network of inns offering fixed-rate lodging and meals spread across the country. Hot springs at Kusatsu, Arima, and Gero drew warriors and monks. Tourists purchased ladles and toothpicks as souvenirs. Pilgrimages to Mount Fuji became routine enough to be considered a social phenomenon.

  The Edo period added a new layer of complexity. Japan's isolation policy made foreign travel essentially impossible, yet domestic travel flourished. Commoners with permits could travel, often framing leisure trips as pilgrimages to avoid bureaucratic friction. Guidebooks circulated, inns and teahouses prospered, and ukiyo-e prints spread travel information widely. The Ise Grand Shrine's Okage Mairi pilgrimage became one of the defining social phenomena of the era. Matsuo Basho's 1689 journey to the then "far north" of Japan produced his celebrated haibun work Oku no Hosomichi. Hayashi Razan had formalized the Three Views of Japan just decades earlier, in 1643, giving travelers a shared canon of destinations worth seeking.

• 3. Opening the Country

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  When Japan ended its isolation in the late Edo period, the expected flood of foreign visitors did not arrive. Distance and limited transport kept numbers low. The early Meiji era saw efforts to build the kind of infrastructure international tourism requires. In 1907, the passage of the Hotel Development Law prompted the Railways Ministry to begin constructing publicly owned hotels across the country. The Japan Travel Bureau, now known as JTB, was established in 1912.

  In 1930, the Japanese Government Railways created a dedicated body with the specific goal of attracting foreign tourists to Japan. That body designed and printed posters and foreign-language guidebooks for distribution overseas and supported the development of resort hotels. It was abolished in 1942, as the Pacific War consumed Japan's administrative priorities.

  The postwar occupation years brought a different kind of foreign visitor. Most international arrivals during the Allied occupation period were GHQ personnel or Americans connected to military presence. The idea that Japan could build a civilian tourism economy came from an unexpected direction. In 1954, Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic, published an article in the literary magazine Bungei Shunju titled The Case for a Tourism-Oriented Nation. His argument was economic and elegant: while exporting goods depletes Japan's resources, scenic attractions like Mount Fuji and the Seto Inland Sea remain unchanged no matter how many people view them. Revenue from inbound tourists, he wrote, could be reinvested to rebuild Japan's economy beyond its pre-war scale.

• 4. A Nation That Stayed Home

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  Despite Matsushita's 1954 vision, Japan spent most of the postwar decades as one of the world's most underperforming tourism destinations relative to its size. From 1995 to 2014, Japan ranked as by far the least visited G7 country, regularly drawing fewer tourists than much smaller nations like Sweden. As of 2013, it stood among the least visited countries in the OECD on a per capita basis.

  The reasons were concrete and documented. Tokyo was rated by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the most expensive city in the world for 14 consecutive years, ending in 2006. Japan's large current account surplus had generated international friction, making the government cautious about aggressively courting foreign spending. The language barrier added another obstacle. Inbound tourism generated just 0.3% of Japan's GDP in 2013, compared to 1.3% in the United States and 2.3% in France.

  Domestic tourism, by contrast, remained deeply woven into Japanese life. Middle school students across the country made trips to Tokyo Tower, Yomiuriland, Tokyo Disneyland, Sensoji, and Tokyo Skytree. High school students often traveled to Okinawa or Hokkaido. The country's extensive rail network, supplemented by domestic flights configured for Japan's relatively short internal distances, made this kind of travel efficient and affordable.

• 5. The Inbound Reversal

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  From 2013, the Abe administration implemented a systematic set of policies designed to attract international visitors. The goal was to offset the economic drag caused by Japan's shrinking and aging domestic population. The results were rapid. By 2014, for the first time in 55 years, Japan earned more from foreign tourists than its own citizens spent traveling abroad. Japan had finally run a tourism surplus.

  Within six years, the number of international visitors more than tripled. Japan received 31.9 million visitors in 2019. Travelers from South Korea have repeatedly made up the largest single national group among inbound tourists; in 2010 their 2.4 million arrivals represented 27% of all visitors to Japan. Travelers from China have consistently ranked as the highest spenders, with Chinese visitors spending an estimated 196.4 billion yen, or roughly $2.4 billion, in 2011. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, in 2017 three out of four foreign tourists came from East Asia, specifically South Korea, mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

  The 2024 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Japan 3rd out of 141 countries overall, the highest position in Asia. Japan scored particularly well in health and hygiene, safety and security, cultural resources, and business travel. Japan received a record 36.87 million tourist arrivals in 2024, an increase of over 47% from the prior year. By 2025, domestic tourism spending, international visitor numbers, and total tourism spending by international visitors all reached record highs simultaneously. The inbound tourism industry now ranks as Japan's second-largest export sector after automobiles, which recorded 17.7 trillion yen in export value.

• 6. Soft Power and Pilgrimage

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  Japan's most visited prefectures are Tokyo, Osaka, Chiba, Kyoto, and Fukuoka. Among the most sought-after individual sites are Sensoji temple in Tokyo, Nikko, and in Kyoto the Fushimi Inari shrine and the Kinkakuji. Japan has 26 World Heritage Sites, including Himeji Castle and the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto and Nara.

  Beyond these historic anchors, the global reach of Japanese popular culture has become a significant driver of tourism. Anime, manga, J-pop, cinema, video games, and cuisine have built what observers describe as a strong soft power appeal. Fans and enthusiasts travel to Japan specifically to visit locations tied to cultural works they love, a kind of pilgrimage tradition that echoes the Edo-period travelers who made their way to Ise or Fuji.

• 7. The Price of Popularity

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  Following the easing of COVID-19-era travel restrictions, 2024 became a record year for overseas tourists. The weakening Japanese yen played a documented role in driving that surge, making Japan significantly more affordable for visitors holding foreign currency.

  The consequences have been sharp enough to generate a new vocabulary. Japanese officials and residents now use the word "overtourism" to describe what is happening in certain areas. Yamanashi Prefecture capped daily climbers on Mount Fuji at 4,000 people and began charging an entrance fee of 2,000 yen. In Fujikawaguchiko, also in Yamanashi Prefecture, a mesh barrier was installed to block a view of Mount Fuji behind a Lawson convenience store, after tourist-caused disturbances made the area unmanageable.

  As of 2024, some Japanese officials have considered a two-tiered pricing system in which foreign tourists would pay more than residents at certain attractions. The debate reflects a tension that runs beneath the record-breaking numbers: the scenic attractions that Konosuke Matsushita called inexhaustible in 1954 are, in practice, subject to the pressures of the crowds that come to see them.