Trends and Issues in Japanese Cultural Tourism

This first half of this chapter provides a statistical overview of the Japan travel market and describes cultural resource-based tourist activities at travel destinations. The second half presents five examples of cultural tourism innovation in Japan: (1) Kyoto’s winter travel campaign, which aims to even out demand between the peak seasons of autumn and spring and the slow seasons of summer and winter; (2) Kanazawa’s 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, which is intended primarily for the citizens of Kanazawa but draws many tourists from abroad as well; (3) the town of Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture, the setting for a popular anime series, which attracts anime fans and was the recipient of a Japan Tourism Agency award aimed at encouraging young people to travel; (4) the Adachi Museum of Art in Shimane Prefecture, which has a “three stars” rating from the French guidebook Michelin Green Guide Japan and whose Japanese garden has been selected best in Japan for 18 consecutive years; and (5) the Setouchi Triennale art festival, which is held in the Seto Inland Sea and attracts many visitors from Japan and abroad. The chapter also touches on adventure travel in Hokkaido and the use of cultural assets as venues for business events.