Japan broke its tourism record in 2024, welcoming an estimated 36 million visitors, three million of whom were US citizens, according to one official’s estimate. As a result, the year has been declared US-Japan Tourism Year by both governments, said Hokuto Asano, first secretary at the Embassy of Japan, reported by US news outlets.
According to Asano and his embassy colleague Yukiyoshi Noguchi, much of the explanation behind Japan’s popularity lies in visitor curiosity about its Buddhist and Shinto religious traditions, geisha culture, snow sports and hiking around iconic Mount Fuji, as well as its instagrammable cherry blossom season.
The surge in US and world visitors marks Japan out as a leader in Asia’s post-Covid-19 travel recovery – something already noted by UN Tourism’s Harry Hwang, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at 2024’s national Tourism Expo. As well as the factors noted above, it is also being driven not only by favourable currency exchange rates, but by post-pandemic “revenge travel,” with travellers determined to make bucket-list trips.
Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council, points out that all this adds to up an economic windfall of almost ¥44.6 trillion (€278 billion). That represents a 5.7% increase since 2019, in an industry that is said to support six million jobs across the country.
According to recent data, Japan experienced an all-time high in tourism in 2024, with a record-breaking 36.9 million international visitors reported by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). A weak yen is considered a major factor. pic.twitter.com/FWliaqubGU
— Facts and Statistics (@factanalyst_phd) March 6, 2025
But with Japan already halfway towards its target of 60 million tourists by 2030 with five years still to go, can the East Asian archipelago cope with its own success? Concerns about overtourism are already prompting counter measures across the island nation. These include tourist fees at a Mount Fuji trail said to be “screaming” with visitors, payment at the famous red “floating” torii shrine of Itsukushima, bans on geisha photographers in certain Kyoto neighbourhoods, and preventative screens to prevent jaywalking at popular instragrammable spots.
The peace has even been disturbed at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which was forced to introduce online ticketing and longer opening hours to better manage visitor numbers. Overall, 30% of visitors said they had experienced overcrowding, according to research by the Japan Tourism Board Foundation and the country’s Development Bank.
Japanese officials intent on the target have promised to spread visitor footfall beyond the areas that already welcome the most tourists, such as Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo. And the issue did not seem to bother Asano, who blamed the problem on a lack of loos in some areas. “So they need to invest in infrastructure,” he said, predicting the trend for more tourists would continue – and with it ongoing increases in visitor taxes to cover the cost of catering to them.
