Despite the visitor boom, Japan is still an "undeveloped country" when it comes to tourism, Japan Tourism Agency chief Akihiko Tamura said Friday.

Inbound tourism rose around 30 percent annually from 2011 to 2015, according to agency data. But the revenue represents a mere 0.5 percent of GDP, according to a recent report by McKinsey & Co.

During a public-private workshop at the World Forum on Sport and Culture in Tokyo, Tamura said Japan has a long way to go if it wants to make tourism one of its core industries.