Recently, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced a government plan to attract 10 million overseas tourists a year by 2010, which would be twice as many as presently visit Japan.

Such a goal is impossible to reach without cultivating the Chinese tourist market. Last year, the number of Chinese who went abroad for pleasure -- about 16 million people -- increased by 37 percent over the previous year.

According to many economists, once per capita GDP breaks the $5,000 barrier, as it did in China last year, people look beyond material needs for psychological comforts, and foreign travel tops the list.