Kiyomizudera Ranks Top in Overseas Searches for Kyoto Cultural Properties

The digital marketing company Aun Consulting conducted a survey analyzing online search trends connected with the 17 cultural assets that make up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, over a one-year period from July 2025 to June 2026 across 32 countries and regions.

The highest number of searches for Kyoto’s cultural properties came from the United States with 3.5 million, followed by Taiwan with 2.7 million. Together with South Korea, Hong Kong, and Australia, the top five countries and regions accounted for approximately 61% of the total.

Looking at the United States’ results, all three of the top searches were for temples: Byōdōin, Kiyomizudera, and Kinkakuji. (It should be noted though that searches in English for Byodo-in Temple included those for a temple of the same name located in Hawaii.)

For Taiwan and Hong Kong, the top three searches were for Kiyomizudera, Kinkakuji, and Rokuonji, which is the official name for Kinkakuji and had just as many searches as its popular nickname.

In South Korea, Kiyomizudera ranked highest, together with Ginkakuji and its official name Jishōji.

Meanwhile in Australia, the most commonly searched for locations were Nijō Castle, Kiyomizudera, and Kinkakuji.

The highest volume of searches by month varied by country, with October 2025 being the peak for Australia and Singapore, November 2025 for Taiwan and Hong Kong, January 2026 for South Korea, and March 2026 for the United States, Canada, and France. This was likely due to the different travel seasons and the timing when people started thinking about visiting Japan.

An analysis of the top keywords used showed that the cultural property most searched for by far was Kiyomizudera with 4.6 million, more than double that of the second highest search term Kinkakuji with 2.1 million. However, when the figures for Kinkakuji were combined with those using the temple’s official name Rokuonji (1.9 million), it took the count to more than four million, indicating a similar level of global interest to that of Kiyomizudera.

Data Sources

• Data from survey of search interest in Kyoto’s cultural properties (Japanese) from Aun Consulting

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)