The cities of Toyama and Osaka have been featured in The New York Times’ list of “52 Places to Go in 2025.”
Toyama, which is located between the Sea of Japan coast and the Japanese Alps, was praised by the Times as a place where tourists could “enjoy cultural wonders and culinary delights while skipping the crowds.”
The paper noted how the area has been appealing to tourists as part of its recovery efforts following an earthquake and torrential rain that devastated the Noto Peninsula in neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture last year.
“This is very good news for us and we would like to celebrate it with the citizens (of Toyama),” said Toyama Mayor Hirohisa Fujii on Wednesday. “Recently, there has especially been an increase in the number of tourists from the West, so we hope that this would be an extra push to get more of them to visit Toyama.”
The Times singled out the city’s Glass Art Museum, designed by world-renowned architect Kengo Kuma, and the annual Owara Kaze no Bon festival — a Bon dance festival held every September with more than 300 years of history — as highlights of the city's appeal, while also complimenting its culinary scene.
The city of Osaka also made it on to the list, commended for its “newfound green space,” noting the city’s recent “game-changing project Grand Green Osaka” that has converted a rail yard in the Osaka Station area into a hub with shopping malls, greenery and Japan’s first Waldorf Astoria hotel set to open later this year.
With the city also set to hold the World Expo this year with pavilions from 161 countries and an estimated 20 million visitors, it is seen as full of potential.
Osaka was further praised for being “arguably Japan’s most progressive city,” given its Pride Center, which opened in 2022, as well as the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association convention that it hosted last October.
The city of Yamaguchi made it into last year's list, described as the “Kyoto of the West,” while the cities of Morioka in Iwate Prefecture and Fukuoka were chosen the year prior.
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