14 Comments

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  mojibake at 09:05 AM JST - 2nd October

  And what is the relationship to the existing JNTO? Seems like this story is missing some background...

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  DJJapan at 10:13 AM JST - 2nd October

  I hope they can do something creative with it! I've never seen any form of promotion of Japan overseas. It is mainly word of mouth.

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  BlackFlag at 11:33 AM JST - 2nd October

  a poster with a scowling salaryman slouched on a train seat will have just the desired effect

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  medievaltimes at 12:08 PM JST - 2nd October

  This is a good move. For all of the bad things about Japan I seem to point out about Japan, there are some interesting things to experience in Japan.

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  babyblueeyes at 12:36 PM JST - 2nd October

  JAPAN’S ambitions to grow its inbound tourism numbers took somewhat of a blow this week after the country’s newly appointed minister for tourism, Nariaki Nakayama was forced to suddenly resign by the PM. The move came after he told reporters that Japanese people are “ethnically homogeneous and definitely do not like or desire foreigners.”

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  kview at 05:12 PM JST - 2nd October

  I am touch by the friendliness and courtesy of most Japanese people. Nariaki should eat his words. Motto is stop and smell the roses for those who worked too hard.I have been to travel fairs oversea and seems that booth promoting Japan tours are working very hard without the help of the Japan Tourism Board if it exist. With the establishment of the Japan Tourism Agency and some attractive seasonal promotions throw in , 'by George' the inbound travel industry will definitely see an increase of foreign visitors by leaps and bounds. Congratulations !

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  rajakumar at 05:47 PM JST - 2nd October

  Japan tourism can get millions more of tourists,if it goes all out to make japan tours more tourist friendly/excellent.

  Japan need to reduce its ego and go all out to show tourists what makes japan sucessful. Getting to hosts olympics 2016 will really help by leaps and bounds.

  There should be more promotions for japan via many ways. May be there should tours that take you to famous factories of japan like Sony,matsushita,toyota and many others.

  Famous people of japan also must help promote japan visits to make good travel experience for travellers. Koizumi is one of the best tourist ambassador for japan with his funny clowning ways.

  Japan tourism should promote its progress by inspiring tourist via the excellence of its tour products. The tours should teach tourists about how japan became 2nd richest nation. This is just one idea,there can many ideas for tourism from tourists/japan people,which are unlimited according to variations in taste of travellers. Travellers themselves will help with many visionary tour ideas but millions more of good travellers have to visit japan first.

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  sharky1 at 09:09 PM JST - 2nd October

  Most tourists go places to relax or blow off stress. Hard to do in a Japanese environment. Japan needs another one of those culture changing shifts in their way of thinking similar to the one induced by Dr. Demming in the late 50's.

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  some14some at 11:40 PM JST - 2nd October

  Thanks to Tourism Agency for creating a few jobs (including Amakudari)

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  Dornier at 10:34 AM JST - 3rd October

  Hardly anybody comes to Japan to visit the factory. What is the point? People go for a vacation to relax and in this matter SE Asia has much more to offer without fingerprinting, taking photos, etc. To me it just what some14some said. Just crating unnecessary positions so retired guys from JTB can spend time traveling abroad to "promote" japan

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  ThreeTigers at 10:32 AM JST - 6th October

  Good idea! It's a great way to get some extra funds into Japan's businesses, provide work, and help the government.

  I have seen one of those "Yokoso" commercials on TV.

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  cjapan at 02:33 PM JST - 8th October

  DJJapan, Japan's gov't does advertise and it is done through organizations such as JNTO and Visit Japan Campaign (most people don't know about this organization). If you ever seen anything with the Yokoso! Japan logo or you read an article or seen a TV program that credit JNTO (Japan National Tourist Organization) that is your tax dollars (if you are living in Japan) being spent either by JNTO offering media assistance or joint campaign done with that agency. JNTO's budget is very small as the government doesn't allot enough money to do TV ads and a lot of advertising. Most of JNTO's activities are done at Travel Shows, holding agent seminars, and joint ad campaigns.

  As for the comment about factory tours, the main reason these tours are not made is probably due to safety. Just think of the problem at Tsukiji fish market with all the tourists getting in the way of the men doing business and getting ran over by forklifts, and people using their flashes during the auction to disturb the buyers. People don't realize that Tsukiji is a place of business not a tourist attraction.

  Japanese government understands the need for tourism dollars and that is why Koizumi launched the drive to get 10 million tourist by 2010. Now if Asano decides he thinks the same, then the government will do more in promoting Japan. The main problem with promoting Japan is getting the funds to do it. I think the main reason Japan doesn't put more money into tourism like other countries such as Thailand is because it not Japan's main industry like Thailand that NEEDS tourism dollars. The government also got to deal with the oyaji in the diet getting heat from the tax payers wondering why the government is spending so much of the tax payers money towards tourism and don't want to face this.

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  cjapan at 02:36 PM JST - 8th October

  Also JNTO and this new agency have no relation and JTB is not ran by the government so no amakudari.

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  cjapan at 02:47 PM JST - 8th October

  oops Aso not Asano...no idea where that name came from.

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