5khours

I don't think Japan is at all isolationist. Xenophobic - maybe. Inept when dealing with new things -yes.

Well that's only one of many possible solutions. Also it's incredibly easy to immigrate to Japan. It's just that no one wants to do it because the economic opportunities are so poor in Japan.

Again I don't really think it's cultural. In fact I think the culture is what makes it interesting for many tourists. It's just some practical thinks like allowing early check-in, etc. Allow a little more competition and all of that will change.

mkjr

Perhaps with small numbers. With mass tourist. They want to travel to a far off place that offers them exactly what they have at home.

My mother would never travel to Japan. Never never never.

Why, she thinks it's too much effort.

So where does she go, on a subsidized trip to China where she sill stay on a bus and be shuttled around and eat sweet and sour deglo pork and pretent she is visiting China.

That's what it takes to get to 40m. Sorry, but it does.

If Japan despises Chinese tourists, if they want 40mil, they will have to startt to speak mandarin. Not to woefully deficient English but mandarin.

mkjr

And with due respect, Japan is predominantly isolationist in the majority mentality.

The sad thing is, that I see that what Japan offers gets worse with more tourists.

I'm glad to have traveled a lot to Japan since 1990.

I have absolutely NO plans to go back having been there in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014 and this past March in the last ten years and a little before then too..water cannons and protesters at nrt at all.

5khours

I don't disagree at all. The bulk of the 40MM has to come from Chinese in tour buses, but the rest wants something more.

BTW - Have you been to Ginza on a Saturday or Sunday recently. Mandarin is the only language you hear.

5khours

Why what happened?

angra

Personally, I am perfectly content with every criticism of Japan lodged in this thread staying exactly as it is. I like Japan fine exactly as it is, even without any trash cans . But, if the country wishes to double tourism, well, then people like me are not the target market. The things that hold back people we know from wanting to visit are not "wrong" or "bad" on either side. I am sure that there are ways to boost tourism without going more mass-market, but they will likely require more work per reward than addressing some of the easier issues brought up in this thread...

Dieuwer

Japan has always been on my bucket list, as I am attracked to culture in architectural form and landscapes (foliage anyone?). However, I hesitate to visit as my Japanese is non-existent and fear I willl be bored out of my mind during evenings.

Note that this won't happen in other Asian countries like Thailand where fom experience people are very outgoing and friendly, and you will have made new friends in no-time.

mapleg

Oh come on. Are you suggesting 1/2 the wealthy US families with children have ADD?

As for me, I would like to see some more park benches/places to sit down along streets, at bus stops etc. In other words, some interesting streetscapes outside where you can sit down and relax/people watch etc.

mapleg

Oh yes it happens. I have seen people kicked out right in front of me because of their tattoos. One complaint is all it takes.

exerda

Yes, agreed. Summer, and to a lesser degree winter, need better reasons to attract tourists, and no, I don't know what the reasons would be.


Indeed. I have had to explain to many people that we spent less the times we've visited Japan than we have in France or Germany or the UK. And that that $300 a night hotel room is really not insane compared to the $450/night "budget" hotel rate at a big US tourism destination during high season...


A lot of US carriers seem to have what IMHO are quite low-cost Y fares, FWIW. I have seen r/t, a-i fares from the east coast of the US to Tokyo which have been $700 or less, which is not much more than the same to Europe.


Agreed. And rural Japan can be intimidating to the western tourist despite the friendliness of residents. I've gotten off a train in more rural areas and thought, "Egad, now what?" when there's no taxi in sight, and bus schedules are almost incomprehensible.


Touchy topic... I have seen racism toward other Asians, but have not experienced it as a westerner. And my coworkers (including Afghans and hispanics) have remarked how polite and friendly random Japanese strangers were to them on their trips to Japan.

As for speaking English more widely, meh, there's plenty of it in most touristy areas including major cities, and after all, English speakers should try to at least learn some of the language when traveling abroad IMHO.

exerda

You shouldn't have those concerns about Japan, IME and IMHO. Yes, the architecture and foliage in gardens are nice. My Japanese is not great (I can ask for things, ask directions, thank people, etc.), but I mostly get by... and I have found some great friends out of the blue.

For example, going to the Miyagikyo distillery in Sendai Prefecture, I was the only westerner present that day. One young man approached me and spoke a bit of basic Japanese, then asked if I spoke English. He wanted to practice English, and we chatted off and on for the rest of the tour and the train ride back to Sendai.

I've had many encounters with folks who want to try to practice English, and also those who, when I try speaking my limited Japanese, are very patient with me and seem appreciative (as opposed to Parisians who, when I speak my French II-level francais, act like I'm crazy: "Je voudrais un mobicart de sim," I ask; cell phone saleslady ignores me repeatedly, for example, then finally says in English, "Oh, you want a SIM card.")

Evenings in Tokyo and Kyoto are never boring IMHO and IME, either.

evergrn

What makes Jpn awesome to me are the food, onsen, trains/stations, konbini, Aeon malls, and people's politeness. I would think those are the things that also appeal most of the most seasoned Jpn visitors (eg, those from Taiwan and HKG).

But if you look at Jpn brochures and guidebooks, they put temples and Kinkakuji and Mt.Fuji and geishas on the forefront. When chowhounders discuss must-have food in Jpn, they talk sushi, fish, nabe, soba, tonkatsu, ramen, Michelin-star washoku places that are booked months in advance. Add to that the widespread misconception that Jpn's an expensive place to visit.

If I were an average American and didn't know Jpn, sorry Jpn would be low on my list. Other than ramen, most of that food would seem either esoteric or bland. Temples and other old buildings? For most folks, probably no interest (for me pesonally as a Japanese, zero interest).

In addition to ramen, curry rice, korokke, guratan and takoyaki, I love complex salads, pasta, croissants, kouign amann, gelato, corn soup, iced coffee. Those are the things I seek out in Jpn because I think Jpn makes them better than just about anybody else. Most Westerners probably are unaware that Jpn has all those things at the highest quality.

Jpn should put out a 4-page brochure where each page is a collage of many little pictures of a specific category. Pg1: whole bunch of food. Pg2: all the different onsens. Pg3: different trains, ropeways and other cool rides. Pg4: different sights (they can stick pictures of Kinkakuji and geisha here). And then they should stick a leaflet in there with messages in bold font stating $40 roundtrip train for NRT<>Tokyo, $100 one-way airfare anywhere w/in Jpn, $290 all-you-can-ride train for 7 days, $3 breakfast at Yoshinoya.

Kallio

I like this. Though it should have a note that it is not mandatory to buy seven day rail pass, see Tokyo, Kyoto and some things around. You are allowed to make plans that don't involve any kind of rail pass or Tokyo or Kyoto if you want. Also you can see Mt Fuji much better from distance than from its slopes though it is often shielded by clouds and fog.

Of course most do some research and find other interesting things to see and do besides the most famous ones but if Tokyo, Kyoto, temples and things on the guidebook cover attract you, you may very well stop your research before it starts. From marketing point of view it could go that there is always few uniquely Japanese but less known things that are featured and they can be changed every once in a while.

ksandness

Good point. The average older American knows only the Fuji-geisha-Ginza stereotype. (There have been inquiries in this forum from travelers who list Mount Fuji and the Ginza as their must-sees and are pretty clueless about what else there is.) The average younger American thinks in terms of anime and manga and perhaps J-Pop.

I have heard Americans say, "I don't want to go to Japan. I've heard that it's all Americanized." (Typical of my more uninformed fellow Americans to equate modernization with Americanization.)

For me one of the fascinating things about Japan is that it was the first countries to modernize from a non-Western starting point. So while it has none of the dangers of Third World travel, the historical background and the non-material culture are very different from anything in the West. That's hard to put into simple terms, but I like the idea of putting out brochures focused on different interests.

When I first came to Japan as a graduate student in the 1970s, I expected to be bored with a country that was said to be homogeneous. However, I learned to appreciate the many surprises below the surface--every time I thought that I had an aspect of the culture figured out, something happened to cast doubt on my hypothesis. I was also fascinated by the regional differences in cuisine, traditional crafts, and dialects, and by the way that no Western cultural import survived unmodified. For example, Japanese baseball is not like American baseball, and Japanese fast food outlets are unlike American fast food outlets.

And nobody does trains and public transit like the Japanese.

Maybe I belong to an unusual group, because I used to teach the language and now earn my living as a translator, but Westerners' attitudes toward Japan seem to be divided between "Baw-ring!" and "I love it!" with very few in-between responses.

evergrn

All very good points.