On January 8, JATA (Japan Association of Travel Agents) held a New Year’s press conference at its headquarters in Tokyo, where Chairman Hiroyuki Takahashi explained future initiatives. The following are excerpts from Chairman Takahashi’s comments.
Excerpts from the press conference
Last year’s major event was the Osaka-Kansai Expo (Japan International Exposition, 2025), the first such event in 20 years since the 2005 Aichi Expo. Although the number of visitors fell slightly short of the initial target of 28.2 million, the event ultimately ended up with 25.58 million visitors, which was perceived as having a certain effect on the tourism industry.
Especially considering that 90% of the visitors were Japanese, the fact that many people saw pavilions from around the world may have helped to build momentum for overseas travel in no small measure. There were also quite a few school-based visitors, and we believe that it was a good experience for students and pupils to broaden their perspectives by experiencing different cultures and interacting with foreigners at the pavilions of various countries.
Another EXPO, “Tourism Expo Japan 2025 Aichi/Chubu-Hokuriku,” which we hosted, was held in Aichi Prefecture for the first time last September. The number of business meetings (6071), exhibitors (1350 companies and organizations), and visitors (127,000) far exceeded our initial targets.
The number of visitors per day exceeded 40,000, breaking the daily attendance record set at the Aichi Sky Expo.
To sum up last year’s travel industry in a few words, it was a mixed bag. Although the number of foreign visitors to Japan has yet to be confirmed, it is expected to reach the 40 million mark, far exceeding the record high of 2024, and the amount of travel spending is also expected to exceed that of 2024.
Overseas travel continues to be a major challenge, with growth of more than 10% over FY2024 in terms of headcount, but at 70% of the pre-Corona FY 2019 level.
In response to these circumstances, we would like to make 2026 the “Year of Transformation. We need to accept the depreciation of the yen and soaring travel costs as requirements, and promote the transformation of the industry into one that is chosen for its “value” rather than its “price.
JATA member companies jointly held a Japan Day event in Haman, a town about 1.5 hours away from Busan, to promote the traditional fire festival “Orohwanori” exclusively for Japanese travelers. Despite being only a one-day event, 1,000 tourists from Japan participated in 2025.
While the mainstream of travel in Korea is rather low-price oriented, I think this was a very epoch-making case in which a change from “price” to “value” was achieved.
In addition, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, and the FIFA World Cup 2026 soccer tournament will be held in three North American countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States, as well as the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in the United States. We would like to use these events as a hook to propose high value-added travel.
Regarding the promotion of youth travel abroad, we will collaborate with related organizations and other groups in making policy proposals to expand two-way exchanges, including support for obtaining passports, and in developing the environment for such exchanges.
As an example of our efforts, in 2025 we announced the launch of the “Go Global Project,” a collaborative project with Shibuya Future Design, which shares the same desire “to have young people gain overseas experience and build Japan’s future,” and in 2026 we hope to take this collaboration even further. In 2026, the two companies intend to take this collaboration even further.
In addition, the government is considering lowering the fee for passport (10-year passport) issuance from the current 16,000 yen to 9,000 yen. Given that the passport ownership rate has dropped to approximately 17%, we have been requesting the government to take measures to promote the acquisition of passports, and we consider it extremely good news if such a measure is realized this time around.
On the other hand, the international tourist passenger tax (departure tax) is being considered to be raised from the current 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen, and taking this matter alone, it can be said that this may have a slightly negative impact amid the lack of recovery in overseas travel.
Although there are some “pain points” in the overall situation, we hope that the new revenue source will be effectively utilized to promote the expansion of overseas travel, and we will make recommendations to the government as well.
Then again, Japan’s cruise population is 224,000 in 2024. It has not reached its peak of 356,000 in 2019 and is still an immature market compared to Europe and the U.S., with great potential for growth.
In 2025, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s “Expert Panel for the Sustainable Development of the Japanese Cruise Market” set a new goal of increasing the Japanese cruise population to 1 million by 2030.
The introduction of new cruise ships by foreign cruise lines or the debut of new cruise ships has been a hot topic, and we expect the market to grow further as the younger generation becomes more aware of the appeal of cruising, which until now has been mainly among seniors.
In addition, the company will work with the Japan Overseas Passenger Association (JOPA) and the Japan International Cruise Council (JICC) to expand the cruise market under the slogan “Let’s CRUISE 1M (Million) – Let’s go on a cruise with 1 Million people! Let’s go on a cruise” under the catchphrase “Let’s CRUISE 1M (Million) – Let’s go on a cruise with a million people!
Booming inbound travel to Japan (inbound travel) has made the dispersion of visitors to local regions an urgent issue. Currently, approximately 70% of inbound lodging is concentrated in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area (golden route), including Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, and overtourism is becoming a serious problem in some tourist destinations.
In order to achieve our goals of 60 million travelers and 15 trillion yen in consumption by 2030, we need to develop new tour routes, and this is where travel agencies can really show their skills. This is where travel agencies, with their intimate knowledge of the region and deep relationships with the region, come into their own in uncovering regional attractions, refining them as tourism resources, and providing new value.
We also believe that a “destination campaign for Japan,” in which specific excursion routes are promoted intensively for multiple years, would be extremely effective, and we have made recommendations to the national government. We will continue our efforts toward sustainable tourism, including the creation of high value-added tours, promotion of tourism DXing, and further internationalization of regional airports.
As for the current situation in China, according to interviews with JATA member companies, group travel (inbound) from China to Japan is almost cancelled. On the other hand, individual travelers have not been affected to a great extent. As for outbound travel from Japan to China, there have been some changes in school excursion destinations and cancellations of group tours.
What will happen during the biggest demand period, Chinese New Year (February 17 to March 3 in 2026)? We will keep a close watch on the impact of reduced or suspended flights by Chinese airlines, which will have a significant impact on individual travelers as well as groups.
Next, domestic travel, which is feared to shrink due to the declining population, is also a major issue. The average number of overnight stays per Japanese person per year is 2.4 nights, and the number of trips is 1.4 times, which continues to be quite low. In order to expand domestic travel, it is essential to create an environment where people can take weekdays off in order to promote a leveling off of travel demand.
The “LARCATION” (children’s study & weekday vacation), a vacation reform initiated by the National Governors’ Association, is steadily spreading, with a gradual increase in the number of municipalities introducing it at schools alone or expanding the number of vacation days. Some municipalities have set the number of vacation days at five, and if children can take five consecutive weekdays off, they may even be able to use the days to travel abroad.
The Kyushu Tourism Organization has also begun to take initiatives on the receiving end, such as the establishment of the “Let’s Learn Kyushu,” a website that proposes a model course specifically designed for the Larkation experience.
JATA’s own initiative, the “Let’s Stay on a Weekday! campaign in 2026. JATA will also work with the government’s “Positive Off Movement” to further equalize travel demand.
In 2026, the 20th Asian Games and 5th Asian Para Games will be held in Nagoya, Aichi. The Asian Games are expected to induce about 2 trillion yen in economic stimulus for Japan as a whole, and are expected to have a large economic impact and promote international exchange.
There are now just over 400 days until the opening of GREENxEXPO 2027 (International Horticultural Exposition 2027), which will be held in Yokohama, Japan. This international horticultural exposition is expected to attract 15 million participants, making it a very large scale exposition. We in the travel industry hope to take advantage of the Osaka-Kansai Expo to revitalize tourism.
Tourism Expo Japan 2026 will be held at Tokyo Big Sight. Under the theme of “Evolving Forms of Travel,” the event aims to promote sustainable tourism by evolving travel for the future.
Finally, this year marks a milestone for the government’s “Fifth Basic Plan for the Promotion of Tourism Nation,” which will go into effect in April. The plan is now in the midst of its final stages of study, and in addition to decentralization of inbound travel and revitalization of domestic travel, “expansion of overseas travel” is being considered for the first time, and there are moves to make it one of the pillars of the plan.
Since balanced growth in the trinity of overseas, domestic, and inbound travel is the key to sustainable tourism, we would like to further strengthen cooperation between the public and private sectors and make this a year that will lead to the next leap forward through reform.
© Source travel watch