Japan planning to boost foreign tourism in rural areas

Wednesday 04th February, 06:19 AM JST

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tmarie at 04:59 PM JST - 4th February

I don't think you can compare renting a car in Europe to renting a car in Japan. For the most part Japanese don't speak any decent amount of English, the paperwork is in kanji (as are road signs). Europe is at leats roman letters and much, much easier to travel around.

If the Japanese want these tourists they should be explaing "how" to enjoy these places not just expecting folks to understand how things are done here - signs in languages other than Japanese would be a start.
Curmudgeon at 05:03 PM JST - 4th February

"The working group’s draft plan calls for setting up more tourist information centers and signs written in foreign languages at airports and railway stations outside major cities so that foreigners can find their way on their own." That would be really useful, as the locals certainly won't speak any foreign languages, and will almost undoubtedly do absolutely nothing to cater for different people.
realist at 06:21 PM JST - 4th February

Richard lll Totally agree. Actually, most major Japanese cities are dumps, with a few exceptions. Apart from the ugliness of Tokyo, there are all the extremely rude and xenophobic people to contend with each day as well. The couuntry side is great, and the people friendlier - the real Japanese. Problem is, the countryside is pretty boring in places. Even where there are beaches they are either inaccessable or else you have to pay to get on them. Plus, the attitudes to swimming in this country are ridiculous to foreigners. Wearing ridiculous bathing caps, getting out of the pool every 30 minutes for a 5 minute break,thats if you can even find a hotel with a swimming pool which is usuable for more than 2 months of the year. This country talks endlessly about globalization and internationalisation, but really, is in the dark ages compared to places like Thailand which are more tourist friendly. They should send these people off to Thailand for a holiday and see what the can learn from the Thais about how to really WELCOME tourists. With the economic downturn, Japan needs foreign tourists - so wake up, Japanese people, smell the roses, and get rid of the xenophobia once and for all. Oh - and you should also try harder to be nice to each other, too - especially in the Tokyyo area. I think foreigners dont come in such large numbers because they know and have heard other people`s experiences about the treatment they get here. Other places are friendlier.
hereandthere at 06:56 PM JST - 4th February

have they notified the rural folk about this?

from the title I thought maybe they were just going to count the "foreign" workers as tourist
borscht at 08:13 PM JST - 4th February

They should send these people off to Thailand for a holiday and see what the can learn from the Thais about how to really WELCOME tourists.

You know they'll just come back and say the Japanese food wasn't authentic and there were no signs in Japanese plus the hotel (New Otani Bangkok) was the only place to find decent service.
bakabaka at 10:09 PM JST - 4th February

There are quite a few small tourist businesses run by gaijin in the backwaters of Japan. Gotta agree with several posters so far, the inaka people are much friendlier, things are cheaper, and people are very helpful. Of course many people want city and luxury, so they wouldnt want the inaka, but then we wouldnt want them....
European1 at 10:56 PM JST - 4th February

Do the Japanese actually want foreign tourists? Or just the money they bring?

Answer: money to bring

In my own personal experience I would recommend a few other Asian countries to visit over this twisted nation.

the same from me
crikeyitsacrock at 10:59 PM JST - 4th February

I'm sure foreign tourists would just love to see the concreted everything in the country. It's so picturesqu. Did someone mention tetrapods?
wuzzademcrat at 11:09 PM JST - 4th February

Japan, like most destinations, is what you make of it.

There's a certain kind of Euro - usually Belgian, French or German - obviously more at home in Thailand. That's cuz in Japan, in fact pretty much anywhere outside of the seedier parts of Bangkok or Phuket, they can't stroll down the main drag in their speedos, perambulating their massive beer bellies before them and on the prowl for gawd knows what.
Helly at 01:25 AM JST - 5th February

Before you can get more foreigners here japan has to fix the way that japan is viewed in the world. The first thing that most people know about Japan is that they do whaling. Next thing is that you have losers like Ishihara as the governor of Tokyo. He has many times insulted foreigners and made racist statements. That all gets reported around the world.
pointofview at 09:42 AM JST - 5th February

Does anyone think the general public actually give a rats *ss about more foreigners coming to this country and that they will cater to them?
gaijintraveller at 06:34 PM JST - 5th February

The best way to promote tourism in rural areas is to sell more land and property to Aussies. They seem to be doing a pretty good job of selling ski tours in Hokkaido and other places to their fellow countrymen.

Other ways of boosting tourism would be to allow more cheap airlines to fly in and make visas easier for people from countries whose nationals now find it almost impossible to get a visa.
sharky1 at 07:50 PM JST - 5th February

Hahahahahahahahaha...They can't even boost the tourism to Japan, let alone other parts of Japan...LMAO
Osakadaz at 02:04 PM JST - 6th February

This is all assuming that the ryokans actually want to have foreign guests now...The best places I have visited in japan have been in the countryside,but I am fluent in Japanese and that makes it much easier.Try getting connecting trains on the local line out of Tottori. ;)
Rekishika at 05:59 PM JST - 7th February

At the moment, I think the National Tourism Organisation might as well save the money. Like Wuzzademcrat rightly said, a lot of tourists simply feel more at home in Phuket or similar places. Not just because they can walk around like he describes, but also and especially because those vacations are at extremely low budget that any of the 'western' countries can not hope to match. From a European perspective, that leaves particular kinds of visitors to Japan: Those that have friends (they will come anyway, so no campaigning is necessary), those who either have business or come for conferences, and those tourists that who come in particular to explore Japan for being Japan. Mostly this means people who have more intellectual interests, like history or arts, who will often be politically aware and so on. The countryside, and Japan itself certainly has quite a few things to offer to those kinds of people. But there is a catch. When the US instituted the current border measures, closely followed by incorrect behaviour behaviour of visitors by the officials at the border, tourism and especially conferences dropped sharply after a few months and haven't recovered until this day. The very people who are most likely to come to Japan do not take such things kindly. The same decline is already showing for Japan. Statistics comparing the months in 2008 to the same ones in 2007 show sharp decline for the second half of 2008 (http://www.tourism.jp/english/statistics/inbound.php), starting in August with -2.0% and dropping to -24.1% in December. My prediction is a further drop in the first half of 2009, after which the numbers may stabilise.