visas, at least those for a short stay of 10 to 15 days, otherwise the present figure of 3.35 million cannot possibly be doubled to reach the target.
Thirdly, there are the language and signing problems that Mr. Ido reported. Consider, for instance, how uneasy you would feel going to the Middle East where there is no written Japanese or English to be found? You would have reservations about walking alone on the street. This being the case, foreigners may be disconcerted in regions with no English signposts, only Japanese. In Fukuoka Prefecture, signposts are seen in many places both in Hangul and English, as well as Japanese but the Kansai region, especially Osaka, is considerably lacking.
Fourthly, there are accommodation problems. Many Japanese inns provide only Japanese style rooms without locks, which poses a problem to foreigners for they feel uneasy about the lack of privacy, although staying a night does provide a fun experience. This being the case, more hotel accommodation is urgently needed in order to encourage internationalization.
The final point is somewhat more of a structural problem. Business opportunities have been on the decrease, partly because of the decline in investment in Japan, resulting in the arrival of fewer foreign businessmen.
All these problems should be kept in mind when talking about the improvement of infrastructure for international exchange.
When looking at a breakdown of tourists nation by nation, the largest group, totaling around one million, came from Korea, although this was a 4.9 % reduction on the previous year's figures. However, the number of Korean tourists traveling abroad totaled 3.8 million in the same year, a 21 % increase on the previous year, showing clearly that Korean tourists also travel to countries other than Japan. Still, tourists from Korea are together Japan's biggest client and 70 % of them are repeater visitors of the young generation from large cities, with good academic backgrounds and high incomes. What they are most interested in seeing are hi-tech and local industries. Their next concern is the visiting of historic remains, followed by communication with Japanese people, urban attractions and soaking in hot springs. Despite Japan being apparently enthusiastic about the encouragement of industrial tourism, it is difficult in practice to make an appointment to view life in the hi-tech industries. If Japanese industries were to welcome more foreign guests, it is very likely that the number of Korean tourists would rise.
The second largest group of tourists are the Taiwanese. Last year Taiwan ranked second with 490,000, a figure which, like that of Korea, decreased compared to the previous year, by 26 % in the Taiwanese case. The number of Taiwanese tourists traveling abroad was 5.18 million, a 9 % increase on the previous year, which indicates that they, like the Koreans, must have gone elsewhere instead of Japan. It is said in Taiwan that a 5 day trip to Japan will easily cost well over a hundred thousand yen, and as they can go to the United States for the same money, they generally take that option.
Taiwanese tourists enjoy hi-tech attractions such as Tokyo Disneyland. They are also partial to seasonal entertainment such as the Snow Festival in Hokhaido, cherry blossoms and autumnal maple trees. Whenever they go shopping they buy audio and hi-tech products, vitamin tablets from Dosho-machi, Osaka, and fruits sold at the airport. Thus market research is important and we have to study their shopping pattern, as it differs from ours.
This is only for your information but it is better to serve hot meals to Taiwanese as they do not care for cold Japanese cuisine.
Considering the various data, we are planning the following schemes, especially directed at China and other Asian countries from where the number of travelers coming to Japan is expected to rise in the near future.
First of all, we intend to construct theme parks and event associated merchandise to corner a new market, including Huis Ten Bosch, Seagaia, and Osaka USJ, which if constructed, will attract an
