I mean this is a thread specifically on what Japan can do to improve things, so it's of course going to have the negative difficulties highlighted. If there's nothing worse that you experience as a traveler than what's in this thread, life is pretty easy. Note the lack of comments such as "cut down on pickpockets" or "find a way to get rid of the scam taxis" or "provide train access to <foo>".

Exactly. Yes, first-time travelers should do a little research beforehand (don't blindly grab a cab at NRT, take your shoes off at temples, know the 止 symbol on toilets) but it's not like we're talking about Vietnam.

You raise a good point.

I frankly think it should be more about what the government needs to do for its residents to accept increased tourism....

but we should see how that plays out in 4 years when LOTS of people will arrive for the olympics...unless they can not find any hotels to stay in... ;-) at least tokyo has a decent amount of those.

sorry, but the trillion or so of tourism $$ spent annually in one of the world's largest industries (tourism) would indicate that any countries government that ignores tourism does to its detriment....so at least the Japanese government is recognizing the value of the same....

but hey, don't read the internets as you note...read here.

http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/sites/all/fi...ights16_en.pdf

pretty big numbers eh!

[fixed my typo]

I understand how foreigners can perceive Japan as a 'difficult' place to travel. But for me, it is one of the easiest, safest, most accommodating places I've ever been. I'm returning next week for the 10th time. It is literally my favorite country to visit.

I'm a native English speaker, who can speak Spanish, and I have found that learning basic spoken Japanese is pretty simple. I can navigate and converse probably at the 3 or 4 year old level :D

Of course most tourists would not learn any Japanese, so whatever. Again, what type of tourists does Japan want? There are many subgroups of travelers... each with their own issues. North Americans? Western Europeans? Russians? Chinese? Taiwanese? etcetc

It is precisely because those industries are no longer competitive that the Japanese government must now focus on tourism.

My off-the-cuff suggestions, in things that are easy to do and hard to do for the central government.

Easy:

Make it possible, and encourage, mobile phone shops to sell prepaid data and voice+data SIMs at reasonable prices so that tourists can pick one up at airports or in major cities. Make them show a passport (require a temporary visitor stamp, even) and record the details if the government still wants to track the users. The current way that the only data SIM for visitors is expensive and has to be ordered in advance (B-Mobile) is ridiculous. This is the #1 thing I can think of.

Encourage street-level signage in English and Japanese about restaurants and shops inside buildings. Many restaurants have no street frontage and are instead up a tall building, where gaijin can't find them easily.

Provide online translation service via smartphone/tablet for Japanese service staff to use, and encourage its use. Advertise this to foreigners.

Side-effect of mobile data: Google Translate and other online translation is now useful, point the smartphone camera at a sign and read off English.

Integrate an online bus timetable with translation, like Hyperdia for road transport - requires mobile data! Show names in English and Japanese so people can try to read the signs.

Provide a translation service for service operators to use and encourage English menus in restaurants using this service, even small ones. Japan is half-ready for illiterate people (foreigners can't read Japanese even with effort) with the pictures of services and food, they need to add text description.

More road and direction signs in English in rural tourist areas; some have this already but others do not.

Advertise that Japan is not expensive - particularly that it's cheaper that or comparable with other major 1st world destinations - while the quality is high (which I think it is). Advertise the natural beauty and modern amenties of Japan, rather than the current combination of neon-cyber-future cities and ancient-crafts-and-traditions.

Try to find a way to offer visitors cheaper rail travel that isn't the rail pass - the rail passes give you a lot of travel, but the absolute cost is high. If a visitor wishes to go to 2 cities in Japan, he/she will have to either buy a rail pass (not cheap) or buy the Shinkansen single trip fare (not cheap). Some sort of regional 2- or 4-trip carnet for visitors, perhaps.

Encourage the hotel industry to move to on-line reservation. On Request is a big obstacle anywhere in the world, but when you've got a multi-hour time difference and language problems, it is a complete pain in the neck. Fortunately the major online travel agencies are expanding in Japan, but I still find a lot of rural places are on-request.

It used to be possible for foreign visitors to buy a prepaid phone. Then it wasn't. :confused: My iPhone works in Japan, but the roaming charges are ridiculous, so I use it only with wi-fi.

There are cheaper excursion fares, but they are described only in Japanese in the monthly railroad timetable that is available at station newsstands. They give you, say, travel to Kyoto and a x number of days of travel within the Kyoto area. They're called shuuyuu-ken. Good luck finding out about them if you don't read Japanese, though.

However, the JR Pass is still a better deal for extensive travel, and Japanese people are envious when they hear about it. And there are regional passes, too, for people staying in either the Tokyo area or the Kyoto area.

Roaming data charges are just not useful, and never are. You have to have a local deal to be affordable (outside Europe for Europeans).

The fact that there are cheaper rail excursion fares for less travel than the JR pass is meant for, but are hidden from tourists, is just another way that Japan, Inc is shooting itself in the foot if it wishes more tourism.

This doesn't change your overall point much, but may be new data for you:

I've had no problem picking up unreserved, data-only SIMs at Haneda my last couple of times in Japan.

This is possible now. Kind of. I managed to get a prepaid SoftBank account with just my passport at Narita Airport. It can be a pain if you plan to come and go, though- if you get a SIM-only prepaid package those expire in 14 days and can't be renewed. If you want a voice+data SIM that you can reuse, you have to buy one of their phones with it. Data-only is much easier these days, though.

Roaming within Asia can be reasonably priced too- sometimes I buy data SIMs from Hong Kong to use in Japan because they're good for shorter trips (3HK sells a SIM that offers one week of unlimited in certain Asian countries, Japan included, for HK$248).

Thankfully B-Mobile isn't the only product on the market anymore, and there are quite a few options out there that provide more bang for the buck.

Softbank prepaid offer sims with voice+data at Narita, Haneda, Chubu, and Kansai
http://www.softbank-rental.jp/campaign/narita/
http://www.softbank-rental.jp/e/selection-acc.php

Good to know. I'll try to remember this next time I think I'm reading japanese.

One Softbank limitation is you can't send an SMS to non-Softbank phones or internationally. You are supposed to instead use some assigned Softbank email address that I could never remember.

Which is great. The problem is, they don't tell you on the website that if you go for the SIM only, the SIM expires in 14 days with no way to extend it. If you want one that lasts longer, you have to get the prepaid smartphone package.

Yeah, back when they were offering prepaid voice/text only prepaid I first found out what my e-mail was. Then I had to learn how to change it when I made the mistake of adding it to my Rakuten account. Every time I touched down in Japan my phone would sound the "new message" chime non-stop for at least ten minutes. Even when I only left for a month or so.

Random tourists can't read Kanji and I'm sure you know what I meant. A person who speaks English can at least read the words and recognise how they are pronounced in Italy, Brazil, etc. Japanese (and Chinese) are very much harder and functionally impossible for a visitor with brief or no preparation - a tourist.