Japan tops 31 mil. visitors in Jan.-Sept., surpasses 30 mil. at record pace
Ideas
As China is close to Japan, it's natural that the middle class in China would want to travel to Japan due to Japan's weak currency which makes spending money in Japan much easier.
Of course China, being one of the largest populations in the world has a huge middle class that want to travel and spend money these days.
When people travel, most of the time, they don't think about politics or ideology they just want to travel and experience other countries.
Foreign tourism in Japan is almost becoming an economic driver, meaning it has a significant effect on the Japanese economy and can improve the economy.
But even at 36.87 million tourists it still has a long way to go to match both France and Spain in tourist numbers.
About ten years ago, for something like that, the Japanese government decided to open up the tourism market and grant more short-term visas to many counties and ever since then the flood gates have opened and now each year Japan is setting records for the number of foreign tourists who enter Japan.
The Japanese domestic economy, in itself, these days, is close to being stagnant, meaning there is not much consumer spending in the economy and Japan is relying more and more on foreign tourism as a economic driver to get the economy moving again.
The challenge is of course is that the Japanese population is around 125 million people while foreign tourists might reach around 39 million in 2025, which means there is a significant difference in the spending of foreign tourists versus Japanese domestic consumers.
And then there is the challenge of over-tourism as some places such as Kyoto in the Osaka area of Japan might actually be experiencing too many tourists for the size of the area.
And like any place, globally, there are going to be some who don't want tourists in their area, and its common that maybe ten percent or less of the tourists that enter Japan are not polite and might cause some problems for the local population.
It's not going to be easy to disperse foreign travelers to regional areas as most foreign tourists want to go to the most popular places in Japan and not some out of the way area that might take time to get there and or have spend more money to get there.
Yes, it's a good idea to promote out of the way regional areas but again how do you get enough foreign travelers to go to the regional areas to improve the economies of the regional areas.
Again its only natural that China, South Korea, and Taiwan make up the most foreign tourists going to Japan as other places or countries might be too far for a significant number of tourists to go as Europe and the US are just a little too far.
But that doesn't mean, with travel today being significantly improved, that someone from Europe or the US or Canada or even South America might want to visit Japan, but again there might not be a significant number of tourists compared to the three regions listed above.
The middle class, which in most countries now want to travel and experience other places has exploded in East Asian countries not to mention the Southeast Asian areas too with an explosion of the middle class in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and even the Philippines seeing a significant increase in the middle class that want to travel with Japan, being in close proximity want to travel there too.
Japan, unfortunately, is prone to many natural disasters such as typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis. And the news can spread fast globally, and especially in the Asia-Pacific region which can affect the numbers of tourists wanting to travel to Japan.
But despite the potential for negative news foreign tourists seem willing and able to travel to Japan to experience Japan and Japanese culture and food.
Spending related in Japan related to German visitors, British visitors, and Spanish tourists might be attributed to the fact that they have might have higher incomes compared to the East Asian countries of China, South Korea, and Taiwan.
But then again the incomes of the middle class in the three East Asian countries have been increasing each year and might be close to the countries mentioned and or even passing them soon if not already.
Its going to take a significant effort to get to 60 million foreign visitors by 2030 and without significant challenges such as crowding, litter and noise problems.
And then, as with any country, there are going to be some who don't want foreign visitors and there seems to be a small but growing number or some in Japan who don't want any tourists at all.
Unfortunately, and it might be a very small number of visitors, who cause all of the problems that make all foreign visitors look bad, which means because of the few who do make problems the Japanese government might impose some restrictions on all foreign visitors.
Many years ago, or maybe not that long ago, there was the phrase "ugly American," which indicated some Americans didn't have good manners and or didn't follow the local customs needed to be polite in a country.
Unfortunately, that is what is happening in Japan now with foreign visitors who don't want to be polite or have good manners when visiting Japan, which again, makes all foreign visitors in Japan look bad.
All the things the local governments are trying to do to get foreign visitors to be more polite and follow local customs is good, but unfortunately, there are still going go to be some who don't follow the rules, but that is in every county too such as in France, Spain, South Korea too.
Governments can only do so much as it seems tourists, when they travel or go on vacation, they forget their manners as they think they don't have to follow any rules and or be polite compared to when they are in their own country.
Japanese culture is not the same as in other countries but good manners are and it's important for all, especially when traveling to a foreign country to have good manners as a foreign visitor to a foreign country a person is representing their country and when they display behavior that is not polite or not good manners it reflects on what the domestic population thinks about that country and the people in that country.
Before traveling to Japan it would be good for foreign visitors to learn something about the country and its culture and especially what might considered good manners and what might be considered not good manners.
While some foreign visitors might actually try to look for some information about the country they are going to travel to, there are going to be some who going to do what they want without any regard for the culture of a country, the manners of a country, and some might even forget about being polite in the foreign country they are in.
Have a nice day!
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