Japan Has Tough Road Ahead to Achieve 60-M.-Visitor Goal

Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto/Sapporo, Jan. 21 (Jiji Press)--Japan still needs to overcome mounting challenges to achieving its goal of 60 million annual visitors by 2030, although the number of inbound tourists topped 40 million for the first time ever last year with their consumption growing to around 9.5 trillion yen.

Worsening Tokyo-Beijing relations in the wake of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s “Taiwan contingency” remarks and overtourism are particularly clouding the outlook for the domestic tourism industry, which relies heavily on travelers from abroad.

In its harsh reaction to Takaichi’s hawkish parliamentary remarks, the Chinese government is curbing travel to Japan chiefly from mainland China.

According to Kansai Airports, the operator of Kansai International Airport and other airports in the western prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo, the number of passengers on flights to and from China, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, last month tumbled about 40 pct from a year earlier. Against this background, tax-free sales to Chinese tourists dropped as much at department store operator Takashimaya Co.'s outlet in the city of Osaka.

In Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, roughly 30 pct of hotels and Japanese inns have already suffered the fallout from the travel curb, a local industry association’s survey showed.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]