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The Imperial Household Agency will start offering guided tours of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in English from May 1 in response to the ongoing growth in tourism. The agency on Thursday said it has received many requests for English tours, noting that foreign people ...
Okinawa measles outbreak threatens tourism ahead of Golden Week
A measles outbreak in Okinawa is causing concerns about tourism ahead of the Golden Week holidays, with 65 infections registered over a one-month period that ended Thursday, the Okinawa Prefectural Government said. Golden Week starts later this month, but hotels in the popular resort area ...
Orix starts new free information services in various languages for inbound tourists
Orix Corp. officially announced the launch Wednesday of its new free information service for foreign tourists that enables the accessing of local information websites translated into other languages through the scanning of specially designated placards using smartphones. By holding a phone or a similar device ...
Foreign visitors to Japan up 19.9 percent, reach almost 30 million in fiscal 2017
The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in the fiscal year through March 2018 jumped 19.9 percent from a year before to 29.77 million, the Japan Tourism Agency said Wednesday. The figure for the calendar year through December 2018 is highly likely to top ...
Tohoku hotels tally 1 million overnight stays by foreign tourists for first time
The total number of nights spent by foreign guests in the disaster-hit northeast surpassed the 1 million mark in 2017 for the first time on the back of a continued increase in inbound tourism, according to a recent government survey. The survey by the Japan ...
'Great Valley of Snow' route with 17-meter-high walls opens for season in Toyama
A sightseeing route running through the Tateyama mountain range in the Northern Alps opened Monday, offering views at one point of snow walls as high as 17 meters on each side of the road. "I was so surprised at the size. I guess we cannot ...
Visitors to Okinawa invited to be citizen scientists as tourism takes its toll on coral
Divers equipped with a simple color chart and an app can help keep an eye on the island prefecture's delicate coral ecosystem.
New York City police say two men mugged a Danish tourist at knifepoint for his Make America Great Again hat. Eighteen-year-old Jannich Andersen was entering a Manhattan subway station on Thursday when a stranger confronted him over the hat. Andersen tells the New York Post that ...
Environment under threat as tourism surge lashes Southeast Asian nations, beaches
Hordes of tourists clamber across the white sand with selfie sticks as Thai park rangers wade into turquoise waters to direct boats charging into the cliff-ringed cove. Made famous by the 2000 movie "The Beach," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Maya Bay on the western Thai island ...
Okinawa angling to become cruise liner hub, not just waypoint
Okinawa has unveiled a road map to develop the southern island prefecture into a major hub for international cruise ships in East Asia. With the three-phase scheme, starting this year, the prefectural government is trying to achieve its goal of drawing 2 million cruise tourists ...
India pitching Buddhist tourism to woo more Japanese
India is heavily promoting Buddhist tourism in a bid to attract more tourists from countries with sizable Buddhist populations, including Japan, as part of a strategy to boost foreign tourist arrivals. India is not only organizing an international Buddhist conclave every other year, but is ...
Industry ministry report urges Japan to shed custom of cash dependence
A report said more cashless payments could help ease the country’s labor shortage and benefit foreign tourists.
