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September 01, 2025
 

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TOURISM

Branded bags are displayed at a secondhand store in Tokyo in December.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2025
Secondhand shops rush for branded goods in Japan
Some operators have partnered with department stores, while others have use AI to determine the value of vintage luxury goods.
The Japanese government is considering allowing foreign workers under its specified skilled worker program to take orders and serve and cook food at restaurants within inns and hotels.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2025
Japan to ease foreign worker rules for hotel restaurants
The government is considering allowing foreign workers under the program to take orders and serve and cook food at restaurants at inns and hotels.
France's President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech at the Louvre Museum, which he referred to as a "source of French pride."
CULTURE / Art
Feb 1, 2025
Louvre opens first fashion exhibition after shock memo about decay
In leaked correspondence with Culture Minister Rachida Dati, director Laurence des Cars said the museum was falling below international standards.
The first official government survey of Hokkaido backcountry skiing could spell changes for trails in the northern prefecture.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 1, 2025
First official survey set to change backcountry Hokkaido skiing
From October 2024, the land ministry has been gathering opinions on Hokkaido’s alpine adventurers with an eye toward increased support and safety for off-piste enthusiasts.
An ocean vista at a resort in Thailand on Dec. 26
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2025
'The White Lotus' is already driving a travel boom in Thailand
Ahead of the HBO show’s third season premiere, Thai tourism authorities, hoteliers and travel agents are readying for a surge in visitors.
Rock patterns formed by crystalized minerals along the Dead Sea shore near Kibbutz Ein Gedi in eastern Israel on Dec. 30. The Dead Sea, nestled where Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian territory meet, has famously been dying for years.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 29, 2025
Dead Sea an 'ecological disaster,' but no one can agree how to fix it
Tackling cross-border environmental issues is no longer a priority for governments in the region.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from right) at a press event in Tokyo on Junglia Okinawa, a new theme park that will open in northern Okinawa Prefecture in July
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2025
Junglia Okinawa theme park to open July 25
Junglia will have 22 attractions including "Dinosaur Safari," in which visitors can enjoy the thrill of being chased by a dinosaur.
With abundant rains and formidable humidity in summer, Japan does not seem to be an ideal land for wine, but winegrowers in Yamanashi Prefecture have gradually been able to adapt.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 26, 2025
Of sake and spirits: Indulging in Yamanashi’s best
Visits to Grace Wine’s vineyard and the Suntory Hakushu Distillery turn a tour of the mountainous prefecture into a gourmet treat.
Hokkaido Railway temporarily suspended train services after a 61-year-old Chinese tourist was fatally struck by a train in the city of Otaru, Hokkaido, on Thursday morning.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2025
Chinese tourist fatally struck by train in Hokkaido
The woman entered the Hakodate Line tracks near Asari Station in Otaru to photograph the ocean with her phone.
While Japan deals with so-called overtourism, the rest of the world is just getting back to pre-pandemic levels of visits from international travelers.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 24, 2025
Global tourism is back to pre-COVID highs
Global tourism generated nearly $1.6 trillion (about ¥250 trillion) in 2024, about 3% more than the previous year and 4% more than in 2019.
Tourists visit shops near Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Shrine on Jan. 13. The nation's growing tourism sector, set to hit 40 million visitors in 2025, boosts the economy but is straining the nation's infrastructure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 23, 2025
Japan has '$100 billion' reasons to welcome more visitors
Japan's growing tourism, set to hit 40 million visitors in 2025, boosts the economy but strains infrastructure, highlighting a need for smarter policies to manage overtourism.
Analysts see the benefits of increased tourism in Japan, already felt in some areas, spreading to more domestic stocks this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 22, 2025
Luxury and hotel stocks are all the rage as tourists flock to Japan
Japan welcomed almost 37 million inbound visitors in 2024.
Amid severe labor shortages, the Japan Federation of Service and Tourism Industries Workers' Unions will emphasize the importance of improving working conditions to realize a medium-term annual salary target of ¥5.5 million for industry workers age 35.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 21, 2025
Service and tourism workers to seek 6% pay hike in wage talks
The Japan Federation of Service and Tourism Industries Workers' Unions hopes to secure a medium-term annual salary target of ¥5.5 million for industry workers age 35.
Akan Mashu National Park in Hokkkaido on Dec. 18. A rising number of Hokkaido towns and villages are discussing the introduction of a local accommodation tax for tourists.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jan 20, 2025
Hokkaido areas examine benefits of taxing tourists
Niseko plans to use accommodation tax revenue to strengthen transportation services and increase the number of tourism-related officials.
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 18, 2025
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
Japan’s much-lauded four seasons aren’t felt as much in Tokyo as they are in the full, rural vistas of Yamagata Prefecture.
Tourists take photos at Sensoji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2025
Japan saw a record 37 million visitors from abroad in 2024
The full-year number in 2024 represents a 47.1% year-to-year increase and was up 15.6% compared with 2019.
Tourists visit Fushimi Inari Shrine in the city of Kyoto on Monday.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 15, 2025
Kyoto to raise accommodation tax to a maximum ¥10,000 per night
The collected money under the new plan would be used to improve infrastructure in the city, such as increasing public transportation.
Kinki Taxi President Kiyoto Morisaki in Kobe on Dec. 16
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2025
Disaster area tour helping Kobe revival 30 years after 1995 quake
The tour program began in around 2000, and over 100 schools have taken part so far.
The influx of foreign tourists in Japan is pushing up hotel room prices, forcing some business travelers to stay at capsule hotels.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 15, 2025
Japan's tourism boom prices out local business travelers
The average price of a basic room at a business hotel in Tokyo has nearly doubled between 2019 and last year.
The Japan Tourism Agency will launch a model project to support accommodation operators working to turn around their businesses.
BUSINESS
Jan 13, 2025
Japan to launch model project helping struggling accommodation owners
Know-how gained from the project will be compiled into guidelines by the Japan Tourism Agency as a reference for other operators.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
The Nobel Prize and a testy phone call: How the Trump-Modi relationship unraveled
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet one another at the start of a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington in February.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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