freecia

Spring = Cherry Blossoms, Fall = Fall leaf colors, Winter = Skiing for the Australians. I'm not sure about summer. Perhaps August for the various festivals?

They could probably get more repeat visitors if there was more international hospitality and cultural training for Japanese service industry like hotels and restaurants. Americans equate flexibility with service and are puzzled when upscale Japanese establishments don't offer an early check-in or replace some part of a dish (or even ask about food allergies with set course meals). I see comments from Thai/Malaysian reviews complaining that the $$$ hotel didn't include bottled water (pretty standard in their domestic tourism). Some of my co-workers are vegetarian and while I've assured them they will have no dietary issues in the big foreign tourism areas, they would probably be out of luck in smaller ones, especially if they want to visit Japanese restaurants as they come across them instead of being compelled to eat Indian food.

Friends who haven't been to Japan usually ask if it is ok to visit without speaking or reading Japanese. An overseas campaign showing how transportation also repeats announcements in English and how easy it is to order food would probably be useful. English seemed to work for many of the European, Australian/NZ, Singapore, and Hong Kong tourists. The major electronic stores already repeat everything in several languages. Kyushu has a lot of Korean speakers in tourism roles. Kyoto/Osaka seemed to have plenty of Mandarin speakers.

I remember checking out reviews for two of the Hoshino resorts in Tohoku for a recent vacation and deciding to skip them when Tripadvisor Japanese reviews (google translated) mentioned how many overseas guests there were. As far as I can tell, overseas marketing and in-hotel staff which speaks your language seems to help bring in foreign guests.