An entire shopping arcade in the city of Okayama became duty-free on Thursday, the first such mall to do so nationwide as Japan tries to lure visitors to destinations away from the heavily trodden tourist trail between Tokyo and Kyoto.
About 20 shops in central Okayama took advantage of a government program from April that promotes tax-free shops by allowing the installment of a single counter to refund foreign shoppers, a procedure that had been a burden for individual shops before. In the Okayama case, the arcade set up a common tax refund counter for member stores.
The move came after Japan expanded the range of products eligible for tax-exempt sale last October to cover items from luxury brands to food and cosmetics, and more shops in other regions are expected to follow.
In April, there were nearly 19,000 shops in Japan registered as selling tax-free products to foreign visitors, more than triple the number from a year earlier.
But as most such shops are still located in the major cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, the government is seeking ways to attract visitors to rural areas in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pledge to revive them with stimulus programs.
Consumption by foreign visitors has been rapidly growing, totaling a record ¥2.03 trillion in 2014, helped by the yen's depreciation and relaxed visa requirements from some countries.