Chubu Centrair International Airport in Aichi Prefecture has set up a booth inside its international arrivals lobby that will allow tourists to experience being a ninja through virtual reality.
The booth, which opened Thursday and will be in operation until Dec. 14, is aimed at attracting tourists to two nearby cities famous for their ninja clans: Iga in Mie Prefecture and Koka in Shiga Prefecture.
While wearing a headset, users are taken to a virtual-world setting and transformed into a ninja battling monsters with shuriken (throwing stars), one of the many weapons used by the black-clad fighters. Each game lasts about 5 minutes. It is available in Japanese, English and Chinese.
After playing the game, players receive free admission coupons for the Ninja Museum of Igaryu in Iga and for the Koka Ninja Village in Koka.
The airport has organized events featuring samurai and ninja in the past. The Chubu region is the birthplace of historical warlords such as Oda Nobunaga.
"I hope that tourists will recognize this region as a place where they are able to have authentic ninja and samurai experiences. I also hope that will contribute to regional development," Masato Kondo, the airport's director, said Wednesday.