The government is formally still committed to a target of welcoming 60 million annual foreign tourists by 2030, but this will only be viable if they can be spread out – both geographically across the country, and throughout the year including the off-peak season.

You can't force people to go where you want them to go. They will go where they want to. And for now that is Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. I'm not sure how you can break this cycle, there are lots of great places, but the problem is getting there, places to stay and enough English speaking personnel.

Our strategy is to take the Shinkansen or rapid express to a station in a location off the beaten tourism track, such as in Tochigi or Gumma, and then rent a car from there, which can quickly and easily take us to a plethora of undiscovered destinations. The authorities could promote this kind of approach to accessing these areas.

Car rentals are a good idea. Foreign tourists can already get discounts on the expressways.

I think the target is a bit silly, but the main issue for me is that two of the main three source countries, SK and Taiwan, must be reaching saturation soon. Something like 1 in 4 Taiwanese comes to Japan already every year, about the same as Britons going to Spain. Most Britons going to Spain do so to sit on a beach and be warm, they do not need to be entertained by an infinite list of sightseeing destinations to see the next time. Neither SK nor Taiwan has a large population. Very large growth from China is still possible of course, albeit with Chinese often the focus of problems described as overtourism. fwiw, mainland Chinese need an international driving permit issued off another country's driving license to drive in Japan. The Chinese one is not accepted.

A more useful target would focus on flows of income and likely beneficiaries, not numbers through the door. I personally could not care less how much Mega Donki is making selling tat and trash to how many foreigners. I want money to go to ordinary people.

how abt to make trips in dprk style?

fix schedule,places to visit,stay and what to eat-dont need to invent wheel?

I am sorry about my sarcasm but Adachi-san seems lives in other world...

Making the rail pass a lot more expensive didn't help any.

Not promoting areas outside of Tokyo-Kansai definitely doesn't help.

Neither does always shoving everything into Tokyo.

They can't even get their companies or citizens to move to rural or lesser known places outside of Kansai-Tokyo.

How are they going to move herds of tourists there?

Gov't: "Please don't target on your trip the already over-capacity places like Osaka... except please be sure to go to the Osaka Expo this year, and then come back again later to gamble at the mega casino resort we plan to erect on the site of the Expo."

Promotion is the key to reaching their goal. As long as the exchange rates favor the incoming traveler, the numbers will definitely rise.

As for spreading the tourists around the country, not as difficult as one would think. Japanese TV stations have several programs showing many wonderful and unique places around the world (and domestically). I have been to some of those places and would love to go to the places shown that I haven't been to yet. The government only needs to collaborate with overseas TV stations to promote a lot of different places and unique events as they do here in Japan.

Using on-line media such as instagram, tiktok, etc. is another way to promote places that are lesser-known but just as interesting to us foreigners.

They have until 2030 to think about what to promote and how to promote. That's plenty of time. I'm sure the government is capable enough to succeed.

I would personally question any Taiwanese taking a sixth trip to Japan to visit say Nagano where I live, if they have never been to any of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea. Japan is good but it is not that good, to the point of foresaking all other nearby countries.

South Koreans may be coming to Japan in record numbers, but at the same time, a record number of them are saying they cannot afford to get married or have kids. This does not strike me as a scenario for large future growth

shogun36 Making the rail pass a lot more expensive didn't help any.

I was exactly thinking the same thing. Shikoku, the only main island without bullet trains, just got a lot more expensive to get to and around on.

People don't mind paying more for super fast and comfortable trains like the shinkansen but having to spend so much more to get on the regional trains is much harder to swallow.

I still don't see nearly the same number of tourists as I saw before the pandemic.

So, you're going to ask them to come, with no restrictions, and then tell them where they should go based on what localities are asking for help with income, and what localities are crying about "over tourism". Sorry, but if someone asked me to pay my hard-earned money to travel there but then said, "Look, we know you want to see the Coliseum/Louvre/Empire State Building/The Floating Market, etc., please consider visiting a rural chestnut farm instead. Sure, JR is not going to help with additional tranportation costs, localities are jacking up hotel prices -- if they have them (if not, you can stay with a family and they can practice English!), you've never heard of the place and there's nothing special about it, but we are asking you to cooperate and give areas outside of the main tourist spots," I'd rightly say no thanks. I don't know many nations that poop where they eat more than this one.

Actually Tokyo can easily absorb another 30 million tourists. Spread over a year. Asakusa maybe not, but then I don't see what's so interesting about Asakusa, there's ton of more interesting places in Tokyo. But Tokyo can cope with an increase in tourists.

Kyoto, yes, that one is pretty full. Lack of drivers, so transport problems with the overfull busses, subway that isn't always a good option, I can see the problem there.

Osaka don't know.

The problem with this whole spreading out idea to me is: Where do they want the tourists to go?

Having an increase in let's say Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi, for Chuson-ji and the gorges, the limit there would be reached very fast. Shiretoko, same, basically every rural area lacks the infrastructure for a huge increase. And you can't start building hotels in the hope that your place goes viral. Get the increase in places like that, and you'll have 200 "Fuji-conbini" stories a year.

So smaller cities? Here too, places like Kanazawa, which I think probably already get quite a few tourists can cope with more, but not as well as Tokyo can. Sapporo, Fukuoka similar, other places... not even Japanese visit Toyama City (I guess) get a million tourists more there and....

So, I don't really see the whole spreading out as a real option, there are nice places all over the country, but most places, outside of Tokyo, aren't ready for a big increase. Tokyo IMO is, it can cope with more tourists. Send them to Kawasaki if there's not enough hotels, same thing anyway, just on the other side of the river.

There is another problem with this , and that's the infrastructure.

The Hotels are already over capacity with room prices getting out of control.

I travel a lot for work, and it is almost impossible finding accomodations, even to 15sqm shoe boxes business hotel rooms. Not to mention that in the past 3,4 years the room price tripled.

Also don't forget about the over congested streets and expressways.

Government should also BAN overbooking for both domestic and international travel agencies, which keep the hotels booked, while the locals cannot find available rooms anymore, both for travel and business.

They should deal with this first.

It used to be fun going to Tokyo. I now avoid the tourist places like the plague, if I can.