Japan keen to attract U.S. tourists ahead of Tokyo Olympics

Good luck witht he situation now that Chinese tourists are not that welcome.

America is much further and 1.73 million is already huge number. I believe many of them are dual nationality.

Japan is already a pretty well known quantity for American tourists I think... there's not going to be much room for growth here. The people that want to go or will go or have already been, and those that have no interest will never go. By most measures the current amount of American tourists is probably fine, but if all they can think of is growth, growth, growth, then it might be a tall order.

Better develope supersonic jetliner then. No one enjoys 12+ hours of torture in an aluminum tube.

Jeff ko:

Precisely. A high speed luxury catamaran for the average person with rooms for families and singles, a bar, gift shop, racquetball, etc. Hegg, out current tech can move us away from the giant tylenol with wings to a triangular and more open interior design. Train like rooms, more bathrooms that are bigger, a bar that you go to instead of being glued to a seat, a kids playroom for the loud and crying ones, etc.

$300 per person with as much luggage as you want stored in your family room. Economies of scale could make that and the price an option.

Kanagawa Prefecture and its prefectural capital Yokohama was one of the exhibitors participating in the annual show for the first time. The port city near Tokyo hopes to attract tourists before and during the Olympics as some of the sporting events such as soccer and baseball will take place there.

Americans don't care about baseball during the Olympics because none of the pros attend. Softball on the other hand always has the best of the best.

"America, is probably the next China, it's a huge market for Japan," said Toshikazu Yazawa, a representative of the Japan National Tourism Organization in charge of the city.

Most Americans have never been out the US.

Would they really choose Japan though to travel to?

Too far and expensive....

Would they really choose Japan though to travel to?

Never,Most would rather stay in the U.S. and go to Hawaii for half the cost.

Being the Olympics and all, it'd be nice if they sought and welcomed more tourists from all nations and not just the US.

"Last year, we had 40,000 American tourists," Yu Yamagishi, JNTO director in charge of Nagano Prefecture said. "Most of them were visiting the snow monkeys and skiing. So we are promoting the winter season."

Yamagishi said the prefecture hopes to attract two million foreigners this year. To reach the target, Nagano is shifting its focus away from Asian consumers and toward North American and European tourists.

So you are close to and aiming for 2,000,000, but the focus is on increasing the place giving you 40,000, 2% of your two million target. The campaign could be wildly successful and double numbers, but that's still only another 2% of their target.

I'm a Nagano resident and would rather the prefecture target the far greater number of Asians who are far closer. For skiing, Asians are happy to simply see snow and ski a little. They will not moan when snow conditions are poor, as they have been in recent seasons and this season in particular. Anyone from the US will also compare Japan's ageing ski infrastructure with that in North America.

@kohakuebisu

The guy was at an exhibition in New York. Did you expect him to say that the US market is not important to his prefecture?

Some simple steps that would make Japan instantly more attractive to Americans and just about anyone else: 1. No smoking. Not indoors, not in parks, not on the streets. 2. Trash bins everywhere and in parks. 3. Stop wearing those useless white face doilies so people can enjoy seeing each other instead of a horde of android robots. So say I.

Patricia:

I'm sure potential visitors to america have a long list of things that america should and shouldn't do too, such as 1) stop yelling across rooms, 2) stop the incessant swearing, 3) get rid of guns, 4) get rid of gang violence and city strife, 5) clean your streets, 6) show common courtesy towards one another, 7) stop slapping people on shoulder and other unwanted body contacts, etc.

Only usa tourists ???. The rest of the world , pls do not waste yr time and money.

How many visitors can Japan effectively tolerate before it becomes overcrowded with tourists like Venice and Barcelona where there is strong anti-tourist sentiment? While it doesn't have the flood of cruise ship crowds like those two cities, there are many places in Japan that have been made absolutely insufferable due to foreign tourists. There needs to be a balance.