Essential information and facts about Japan:
Capital
Total Area Population Median age Religion
Ethnic Groups Languages
Chief of State Tokyo
377,
915sq.km 125.5 million 48.6 years
Shintoism, Buddhism, Christianity
Japanese (98 per cent), Chinese, Korean
Japanese Currency Yen ¥
Government type Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy
Emperor Naruhito (since May 2019)
Head of Government Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (since September 2020)
Elections Monarch is hereditary. Leader of majority party or majority coalition in House of Representatives usually becomes Prime Minister.
Unemployment 2.9 per cent (November 2020) Tourism 31.8m
As of end January, Japan’s borders remain virtually
closed to international tourists. It is still undecided how long the ban on tourism will continue. Some say until after Autumn 2021 and after the end of the Olympic and Paralympic games in the summer if they go-ahead.
A ‘Business Track’ system was also introduced to permit business travellers from certain countries only to skip quarantine if they tested negative on arrival. However there is a lengthy time consuming application procedure plus a contact tracing app involved.
expenses. Te idea was to re-start the economy by pushing domestic tourism. Tere are other Go To campaigns such as Go to Eat with discounts on dining out. By mid November about 52.6 million nights had been utilised via the Go To Travel campaign saving people about ¥308bn. Te hotel, transportation, hospitality and gift shop industry employs around nine million people.
However although the campaign was due to run through until June 2021, the Go To Travel scheme was abruptly suspended on Dec 28 in a bid to curb the spread of virus after a spike emerged nationwide with over 3,000 daily new cases.
Airlines and long distance buses cut their services and seasonal tourist trains were suspended initially. Most tourism attractions have re-opened now, but many events and festival remain postponed.
As of end January, Japan’s borders remain virtually closed to international tourists. It is still undecided how long the ban on tourism will continue. Some say until after Autumn 2021 and after the end of the Olympic and Paralympic games in the summer if they go-ahead.
It will hit the country hard. In 2019 Japan saw over 31.8 million international tourists with ¥4.8 trillion in travel expenditure.
Te biggest number of visitors came from China (8.38m), Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It was predicted that over 34.3 million international tourists would visit Japan in 2020 whilst the government had set ambitious targets to welcome 60 million tourists, 130 million overnight stays and ¥15 trillion in travel expenditure by 2030.
Of course this was all before COVID hit. September 2020 saw just 13,700 foreign visitors arrive in Japan, a 99 per cent decline on the same month in 2019 whilst October saw 27,400. Usually there are on average between 2.5 million and three million foreign visitors per month. January to September 2020 recorded 3.9 million visits in total.
But pushing the pandemic aside, the ultimate aim to transform Japan into a globally competitive tourism destination still remains, and the Integrated Resort industry, and plans for casinos, is a key part of this dream.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P51
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