What is happening with tourism?

Hi all,

Maybe I am paranoid however, the great increase on Japan Rail Passes cost and the closing of Japan Official Travel App are making me suspicious of that something is happening. I have the feeling that they want to do it harder.

What is your take on this?

You have a feeling that they want to do what harder? Please state exactly what you are trying to imply (and your rationale) or what kind of responses you or looking for.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/10/18/japan/society/overtourism...

I mean harder to travel to Japan. Somehow the message was cut. The Rail Passes are ridiculously more expensive and the office are closing too. Maybe I am wrong but I do not think it is a coincidence the increase of prices and the Official Tourism app/web closure.

they corrected the price from the dumping condition to the discounted one.
it is their negligence that they did not improve the price for a long time.

I don’t understand the question.
But the answer is simple: if you don’t like it, then don’t go.
I went twice already (2022-11, 2023-07), and I am going back again next month.

I'm a bit confused at what your question is. You're worried about an increase in price for the Japan rail cost and that makes you think that Japan is somehow secretly plotting to not bring in as many foreigners because of it???

The world changes every day. Just because something negative appears to have happened, it doesn't mean that nothing good will come of it. Things will be fine in the future, just wait and see. The whole world is also going through major financial changes as well.

「 I have the feeling that they want to do it harder.」

If by "they" you mean the Japanese government is handing down decrees to the effect of "Make it more difficult to travel to Japan!", then no, that's not true.

As with a lot of things in life, the JR rail pass increase is explained by economics. The pass was one price, and demand was high (a lot of people bought it). JR, like any company, wants to make profits, but they can't easily increase the supply of train seats. They can't add more seats to existing trains, and adding more trains is a major expense in terms of building/staffing them. So if you have a product with high that you can't increase the supply of, you raise the price. Raising the price is an especially easy call to make with the value of the yen being very low right now, since a large yen increase won't feel as painful as it normally would to foreign tourists. Basically, JR doesn't care if fewer people -want- to buy the JR pass at the higher price, because demand is already higher than supply, and it thinks that even if the demand drops a little at the higher price, they'll still sell all they offer, and make more money doing it.

As for the Japan Official Travel App closing, I don't know what the rationale was. However, the Japan National Tourism Organization, which ran the app, still has its extensive English-language website, which would be a strange thing for them to continue running if their goal was to "make it harder" for people who want to visit Japan.

I don't think they are trying to make it more difficult to travel to Japan, but they may be trying the type of tourist that comes to Japan. Getting people away from the main sights which are close to capacity to more rural areas is a big thing.

Also, the JR pass has not increased in cost for I have no idea how long. It was unbelievable value and would be costing JR more than they were getting probably. Increasing revenue and encouraging people to travel to different locations can happen at the same time

I'm not visiting Japan again, but did visit in June and August. Things in general have improved from pre civid with a lot of work done due to the 2020 olympics

On my last month long trip to Japan I bought a 3 week and a 1 week Japan Rail Pass (pre price hike). I used it for everything I possibly could to make it pay off. Since I had been to Japan numerous times before the one month trip I was comfortable with changing locations from Hokkaido to Kyushu frequently (about a dozen with side trips also) with Kyoto the one location I stayed for about a week. In Tokyo and Kyoto I used the pass for travel on JR lines within each city and for JR busses and ferry boats when I stayed in places where they were operating. The only time I had to spend money on travel was the few non JR lines I took or subway lines in Tokyo and Kyoto. At the time I felt it was an incredible bargain. With the new price hike and a similar itinerary it would probably still pay off but an itinerary would need to be planned to make maximum use of the rail pass.

I agree with LikeBike.