Japanese Tourism Demand

A destination needs to market itself as an aspirational and essential place for Japanese tourists because of the strong pressures that exist in Japanese society for people not to appear to be better than others in the society, while simultaneously being recognized as achieving the same level of benefits as others in the society. Thus, Japanese tourists must believe that a destination that Japanese generally want to experience and, therefore, is an essential place for them to visit to assure that they achieve the same level of benefits as other Japanese receive.

As the data illustrated in Figure 1 indicate, the trend over the 25-year period 1973-1997 in relation to an emphasis on leisure and free time among Japanese people followed a steadily upward pattern from 1977 through 1989, meaning that during this 13-year period within a period the Japanese progressively placed a greater emphasis on leisure an free time. Before 1977, however, a drop in the emphasis on leisure occurred from 1973 to 19