Monday marked the 2,799th day of the current administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, making him Japan's longest continuously serving prime minister. The Yomiuri Shimbun will look back on the policies his administration has taken up, and explore issues that lie ahead.
On Aug. 20, Naha Airport's international terminal was deserted. The check-in counters in the departure lobby were all closed, and a large flight information display was dimmed, with only the time showing.
"I had expected that the airport would be crowded with a lot of inbound [visitors to Japan] during the summer sightseeing season," a female souvenir shop employee, who sells food from Okinawa Prefecture at the airport, said with a sigh.
The terminal was expanded in March last year in anticipation of an increase in the number of visitors to Japan. At that time, a shopping district designed to sell specialties of the prefecture was set up. In March this year, a second runway opened, and the airport was ready for increased tourism.
However, the expected foreign visitors have not come. At Naha Airport, the number of annual flight slots had increased from 135,000 to 240,000 along with the opening of the second runway. But, the actual number of arrivals and departures between April and July this year was only about 20,000, down about 60% from the previous year.
-- Suga's key role
The promotion of Japan as a tourism-oriented country, which can be symbolized by the movement to attract visitors from overseas, is the "greatest achievement" of the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
The number of visitors to Japan in 2019 was 31.88 million, three times the number in 2013. Travel spending increased to 4.8 trillion yen in 2019. This is also more than three times the 2013 figure. Tourism has grown into a major industry in Japan. Although this figure still did not equal the 12 trillion yen export value of automobiles -- the nation's largest export item -- it did surpass the value of the second-largest export of electronic components such as semiconductors, which is worth 4 trillion yen.
The economic effects have spread beyond such big cities as Tokyo and Osaka. In Oita Prefecture, for example, travel consumption in 2019 reached 36.8 billion yen, a five-fold increase from 2013.
It was Suga, who hails from Akita Prefecture, who played a key role in this inbound policy.
"It's your job to maintain a peaceful Japan while promoting exchanges with foreign countries." Suga was said to have pressured senior officials of the Justice Ministry and the National Police Agency, who expressed security concerns over an increase in the number of foreign visitors to Japan, at his office in the Prime Minister's Office in the summer of 2013.
Suga has worked to ease visa requirements. The Foreign Ministry had issued multiple-entry visas to affluent Chinese people allowing them and their families to visit Japan as many times as they like on condition that they visit certain places such as Okinawa Prefecture. In January 2015, the ministry expanded the scope of people eligible for the multiple-entry visas, also issuing them to those with lower incomes than the initial visa recipients, and lifted restrictions on the places some high-income earners can visit.
-- Abnormal state
The novel coronavirus pandemic has changed the landscape around the whole country. Only 3,800 people visited Japan in July. The number of such visitors has fallen 99.9% from the year before, and this abnormal situation has continued for four months since April.
Suga expressed a sense of crisis by saying, "The estimated 9 million or so workers engaging in the tourism industry are barely alive." But there is no magic bullet.
There is no hope of achieving the government's goal of increasing the number of foreign visitors to 40 million in 2020.
However, it has been pointed out that the growth in inbound visitors had already slowed even before the coronavirus outbreak. Last year, flights between Japan and South Korea were either cut or suspended due to worsening bilateral relations. China and South Korea alone accounted for half of the visitors to Japan, and thus the situation took a great toll on the domestic tourism industry.
There is also room for growth in how much each visitor spends. According to the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation, tourism revenue per foreign visitor in 2018 was 1,320 dollars for Japan, but this was lower than 1,650 dollars for Thailand and 4,870 dollars for Australia, which is one of the top countries for tourism.
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