Japan’s most popular spot for foreign tourists is…
February 6, 2008
By Ken Worsley
Quick - what is Japan’s most popular spot for foreign tourists? I have to admit being slightly surprised by the results of this survey by the Japan National Tourist Agency. The first ideas that came into my head were the Imperial Palace or Asakusa, but neither one of those appeared in the top five. Akihabara? Nope.
Apparently, the most popular spot for foreign tourists in Japan is Shinjuku, which held the top spot for the third year running. It was followed by Osaka, Kyoto, Ginza and Shibuya. It’s a bit odd that three of the top five are neighborhoods in Tokyo, while two are whole cities, but this could reflect the answers given more than anything else.
Perhaps Shinjuku wins by default, with so many international hotels. The JNTO also cited Kabukicho as a popular tourist spot, though that’s always on the list of places that natives often tell people to avoid. According to the agency, Kyushu was popular with tourists from South Korea, which makes geographic sense. At the same time, tourists from China mentioned Mt Fuji, Osaka and Kyoto as places they visited or planned to visit. American and British tourists noted Nara, Kamakura and Hiroshima as places they intended to check out.
On a side note, for those planning a visit to Japan next month, it looks like the end of the month will be high time for hanami, or cherry blossom viewing. The JNTO has a page devoted to forecasting the blossoming of the trees, and hopefully this year’s prediction will be more accurate than the debacle we saw last year.
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Ken, have you got a direct link to the article? I can’t find it on the JNTO web site! I’d be wary of how they collected the data - the recent survey about how 85% or so come to Japan for the food was collected from a survey in English only by people who walked into tourist offices. The sample was over-represented by continental Europeans, which suggests they co-opted a bus tour or two into ticking the boxes. Oh, and the questionnaire looked like they never ran it past a native speaker to check the English.
I for one don’t find Shinjuku a surprising choice given the popularity of Yasukuni Dori (all those bright neon signs), the variety of the district’s bars and restaurants and of course the number of high-end hotels located in Nishi Shinjuku (just think of how many times people have asked you where that hotel from Lost In Translation is).
But its secret weapon? Don Quijote. Whenever I’m passing the company’s Kabukicho megastore I’m surprised at the numbers of tourists milling around the shop’s entrance. Just how did it become so popular with Asian tour groups?
Ken, I don’t have a direct link. The survey was emailed out as a press release. But the methodology looked equally bad. I don’t think it’s meant to be that serious though…
Marcus, it’s amazing what a Don Quijote can do for tourism! That must be what Asakusa and the Imperial Palace need!
So long as all the Don Qui shops don’t get burned down!
There has to be some major money being missed out on in Hakone or Atami. Someone out there has to get their act together and set up a resort that international tourists will dig.
I recently read Ryu Murakami’s “In the Miso Soup” - clearly the foreign presence in Kabuki-cho has been noticed by many Japanese… the book paints a pretty dark picture of the area although having read it, when friends of mine visited recently, I took them there pretty early on. I agree with Marcus too, the area has probably boomed for tourists since Lost in Translation.
On a side note, I wonder how many tourists have photos of the Kabuki-cho pachinko parlour named “Oriental Passage, Pachinko and Slot” - I saw quite a few foreigners taking snaps!
What is Japan’s most popular spot for foreign tourists?…
Japan Economy News takes a look at a recent survey into what the most popular places to visit are for foreign tourists….
Peter, I haven’t read that one but Murakami is often pretty dark. He must have a feast with Kabukicho. You’ll have to lend it to me!
I’ve always taken tourist friends there as well. They definitely appreciate the uniqueness of the atmosphere.
It has to be the concentration of international hotels. And Shinjuku is just a sight to behold. It’s got to be one of the busiest places in the world. There might be better people watching spots in Toyko, but it’s one of the best spots to just watch the madness.
I’m with Marcus, it’s Yasukuni-dori. When I first got up on the pedestrian bridge over Ome-kaido, just West of the Prince Hotel, and looked East, I realized I’d seen that view a number of times before I’d ever even thought of coming to Japan. It’s exactly what people imagine when they imagine Tokyo. The only image that rivals it for iconicism (I don’t think that’s a word) is an aerial view of Hachiko corssing.
People unfamiliar with a place tend to look for what they know first, then go from there.
Ryu Murakami tends to move in a fairly internationalized set, it seems, might explain a bit of what he writes.
And Japan wonders why they have a tourism trade imbalance. JNTO’s incompetence is only challenged by their brethren at METI. The biggest segment of foreign tourism in Japan comes from China, most of whom come to Japan for shopping, especially in Akihabara and Odaiba. I can’t see how Shinjuku draws more tourists than those areas. All of Odaiba’s public address announcements are now in Japanese, English and Chinese, reflecting the international clientele. I would like to see the methodology of the survey, for no other reason than to laugh.
Surely there is a word in the German language that means, “To stand on a pedestrian bridge and have a feeling that one has imagined the scene before, whilst looking east.”
Albrecht, any help on that one?
I would imagine that group tours make a trip through Shinjuku, and it’s a hard place to avoid if you want to change trains for anywhere. I think it makes sense that so many people visit there since there are so many hotels. But it wouldn’t be first on my list.
I would imagine that group tours make a trip through Shinjuku, and it’s a hard place to avoid if you want to change trains for anywhere. I think it makes sense that so many people visit there since there are so many hotels. But it wouldn’t be first on my list.