Tourism Development in Japan

This significant and timely volume focuses on the unique trajectory of tourism development in Japan, which has been characterized by an historical emphasis on promoting both domestic and international tourism to Japanese tourists, followed by the more recent policy of competing aggressively in the international incoming tourist market. Initial chapters present an overview of past and present tourism, including policy and research perspectives. Thematic perspectives on tourism and specific contexts and places in which tourism occurs are then examined. Strains of Japanese tourism such as sport, surf, forest, mountain, urban, tea, pilgrimage and even whaling heritage tourism are among those analyzed. The book also explores tourism's role in confronting difficult pasts and presents, and the challenges facing the development of tourism in contemporary Japan. A short postscript outlines some of the challenges and possible future directions tourism in Japan may take in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Written by a team of well-known editors and contributors, including academics from Japan, this volume will be of great interest to upper-students and researchers and academics in development studies, cultural studies, geography and tourism.

Richard Sharpley is Professor of Tourism and Development at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK, and Distinguished Professor in the Center for Tourism Research at Wakayama University, Japan. Kumi Kato is a professor at the Faculty of Tourism, Wakayama University, Japan. She currently chairs a committee for sustainable tourism at the Japan Tourism Agency.

1 Introduction: tourism in Japan - from the past to the present; 2 Tourism research on Japan - overview of major trends: Japanese and English-language materials; 3 Urban development and tourism in Japanese cities; 4 Transition of forest tourism policies in Japanese national forest management; 5 A systematic review of sport tourism research in Japan; 6 Mobilizing stoke: a genealogy of surf tourism development in Miyazaki, Japan; 7 Japan's mountain tourism at a crossroads: insights from the North Japan Alps; 8 International exchange in tea tourism: reconceptualizing Japanese green tourism for sustainable farming communities; 9 Pilgrimage tourism in regional communities: the case of Tanabe City and Kumano Kodo; 10 Confronting difficult pasts: the case of 'kamikaze' tourism; 11 Whaling heritage and tourism development - 'sliced, diced and boiled down'; 12 Debating sustainability in tourism development: resilience, traditional knowledge and community: a post-disaster perspective; 13 International tourists in Japan: their increasing numbers and vulnerability to natural hazards; 14 The expansion of peer-to-peer accommodation rentals in Japan: issues and challenges; Postscript