The government plans to throw its support behind museums dedicated to art and other subjects, as part of its efforts to attract tourists from Japan and abroad.
Twenty-five designated museums will be chosen to receive comprehensive support from the government for such measures as improving their multilingual services and transportation access. The government will submit a bill to the ordinary Diet session next year to establish the new support system and select facilities by the end of fiscal 2020.
The government is envisioning support for key facilities that provide information on exhibits and other materials that are specifically aimed at tourists. Facility managers and local governments need to submit specific plans for tourism promotion and be certified.
Each certified facility will be entitled to receive financial support of about 50 million yen for various promotion efforts, such as introducing multilingual information services, installing public Wi-Fi networks and paying personnel costs for curators.
Such a facility will also be eligible to exhibit national cultural properties associated with its local area. To improve access, the government will streamline administrative procedures for issuing joint tickets good on buses, trains and other forms of transportation. The Japan National Tourism Organization will assist the facilities in their efforts for overseas promotion.
Cultural facilities in Japan have become popular tourist spots among foreign visitors. A survey by the Japan Tourism Agency in 2018 found that about 60% of tourists from the United States and the European Union visited cultural facilities.
Many more people are expected to visit such cultural facilities if the appeal of establishments in local areas is enhanced.
A good example is the Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory in Hokuei, Tottori Prefecture. The number of visitors in fiscal 2018 was about 160,000, double the figure five years ago, thanks to the display of original drawings of "Meitantei Conan" (Detective Conan), a popular manga created by Hokuei native Gosho Aoyama.
The number of foreign visitors in particular increased more than threefold over the five-year period, reaching about 17,000 in fiscal 2018.
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