Japan Sets Target Of Receiving 60 Million Foreign Tourists In 2030 – OpEd

The Japanese tourism sector has been booming in recent years. Industry insiders noted that 2030 was the official target year for Japan to receive 60 million inbound travellers, and the critical staff shortage could tarnish the nation’s reputation for omotenashi – the traditional Japanese commitment to look after the needs of guests, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper reported.

“We are already seeing a shortage of people in the industry, most definitely,” the SCMP reported quoting Masaru Takayama, president of Kyoto-based Spirit of Japan Travel, an inbound travel agency as saying.

According to a report by the Kansai-based Asia Pacific Institute of Research released earlier this month, the Japanese tourism sector will face a staffing gap of about 536,000 workers by 2030.

“A lot of companies in the travel sector had to lay off staff during the pandemic, and those people found jobs in different sectors. Now that tourism is up and running again – and busier than ever – we have lost those people to new careers, and we have lost their skills and knowledge.” the SCMP reported quoting Takayama as saying.

He pointed out that the staff shortage was particularly acute in rural parts of Japan. 

Investors in Japan have been accelerating the development of hotels to meet the booming tourism demand. A record 36.9 million tourists visited Japan in 2024, and the number is set to surpass 40 million this year, according to Japan Travel Bureau, a major travel agent.

But tourism players had failed to factor staff shortages in their planning, Takayama said. The shortfall has led to as much as a three-fold increase in salaries at tourism hotspots compared with a few years ago, such as those working in the popular ski resort of Niseko in Hokkaido, according to Takayama.

Ashley Harvey, a veteran travel marketing analyst in Japan, agreed that working conditions and pay in the tourism sector were typically worse than elsewhere, while more young Japanese were insisting on a better work-life balance.

“Tourism is a tough job to be in, and that makes it hard for employers to fill all their positions,” the SCMP reported quoting Harvey as saying. 

“I expect the staff shortages will ultimately lead to reductions in inefficiency, but this is a business that requires the human touch.”

The problems of Japan’s falling birth rate and ageing population could not be alleviated soon, if at all, but the only feasible solution might not be welcomed by some Japanese, Harvey said.

Harvey said there were already more foreign workers in places across Japan where he had visited, such as Shizuoka and Kanagawa.

An influx of foreign workers may be a difficult topic to broach in Japan but there has to be a mindset change if the country aims to protect its reputation as a top tourism destination, according to Harvey.

Japan is in the middle of an unprecedentedly huge inbound international travel boom, with the country’s major tourism attractions seeing significantly more tourists than they did prior to the pandemic. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in Kyoto, but it turns out there hasn’t been an across-the-demographic-board increase in the number of visitors to the city’s temples, shrines, and gardens, as several of the city’s top sightseeing attractions have seen a sharp drop in their number of Japanese visitors, the Japan Today newspaper reported.

The Kyoto municipal government conducts an annual study to track tourism trends in the city, and as expected there was a huge increase in foreign travelers between 2023 and 2024. Looking at the number of foreign visitors at Kinkakuji/the Golden Pavilion, Fushimi Inari Shrine, the scenic Togetsukyo Bridge in the Arashiyama district, Nishiki Market, the Kiyomizu Gojo neighborhood, and Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, all had increases of at least 24 percent.

It remains to be seen how long the broad international tourism community’s intense interest in Japan will be sustained, as pent-up demand from travel plans delayed during the pandemic is still a factor, and the weakness of the yen is also a deciding factor in many people’s decision to visit the country for the first time.

At the same time, many people in Japan are being forced to tighten their belts as consumer prices rise and wages stagnate, while hotels, seeking to capitalize on the high demand for rooms from inbound tourists flush with spending power, have been rapidly raising their rates in prime destinations.

Combined, those factors are convincing many foreign travelers that right now is a great time to go to Kyoto and see its top sights, while simultaneously making many Japanese people feel like it’s definitely not the time to, so whether this visitor gap will be permanent or not, it’s probably going to get wider before it narrows.

According to the Kyodo News website, the number of foreign visitors to Japan in February 2025 rose 16.9 percent from a year earlier to a record 3.26 million for the month, driven by strong demand for winter sports and the Chinese New Year holiday trailing into the month, government data showed. 

The figure topped 3 million for the first time in February, driven by a surge in visitors from Australia and the United States, the Japan National Tourism Organization said.

By country and region, South Korea led with 847,300 visitors, up 3.5 percent and a record for the month. China followed with 722,700 visitors, a 57.3 percent increase, driven in part by expanded flight connections between the two countries.

“This February had a shorter Lunar New Year holiday than last year. Yet, the number of visitors to Japan rose from the year before,” the Kyodo News reported quoting Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Naoya Haraikawa as saying at a press conference. 

The number of travelers from Australia and the United States also hit record highs for February, rising 33.5 percent to 88,800 and 28.8 percent to 191,500, respectively.

In total, a record number of visitors for the month came from 20 countries and regions, including Vietnam, Taiwan, and Britain.

The cumulative number of visitors for the start of this year reached about 7.04 million, up 28.5 percent from the same period the previous year.