Editorial

This special issue is timely, given the social, economic and political climate surrounding Japanese tourism, tourism research and education. The issue is positioned at the crossroads of closely related social trends in Japan, attempting to cast a future vision of its development. Japan and its economy experienced unprecedented growth after the Second World War supported by a large scale public investment and led by manufacturing-based industries. After the burst of the Bubble Economy in the 1990s, however, that growth has stagnated in an increasingly competitive world. In the attempt to restructure the conventional economic system, a focus has been given to service industries, especially tourism. At the same time, contemporary Japan's social change is characterised by its declining and ageing population. The population peaked at around 128 million between 2007 and 2010, starting to decline thereafter. The 2010 census indicates the population to be 125 million, which has declined by 370,000 (0.3%) compared to 2005. A further fall of up to one-third of the current population is predicted in the next 50 years.

These phenomena are the rationale for the Japanese government’s policy initiatives to situate tourism as a key national strategy for economic and social revival, as seen in the declaration of Tourism Nation (2006), Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Law (enforced in 2007), Visit Japan Campaign (2003–2010) and establishment of the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) within the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2008). Active promotion has led to a rapid increase of inbound tourism to Japan: in 2015, the number of inbound arrivals (19.7 million) exceeded outbound numbers (16.9 million) for the first time, having increased by 47% from the previous year (Japan National Tourism Organization [JNTO], 2016). The largest source market is China (4.9 million) followed by South Asian nations (Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam). The relaxation of visa requirements, an expansion of flight routes, the reduction of oil surcharges, hence cheaper airfares, an increase in the number of cruise ship port calls, the weakening yen, as well as the economic growth of visitor nations, are all identified as factors driving this increase in inbound tourism (JNTO, 2016). The Government has recently issued a new vision statement, “A Tourism Vision for Future Japan” (2016) followed by an action programme (JTA, 2016a, 2016b). The Vision puts forward three pillars: Tourism as a basis for regional redevelopment; Tourism as a strategic core industry with an increased international competitiveness and innovation; and Improved facility and environment for all tourists. Inbound targets have been revised to 40 million by 2020 and 60 million by 2030 (JTA, 2016a, 2016b).

Given this context, not surprisingly, there has been a significant increase in tourism research and education initiatives in Japan. Currently, tourism or tourism-related studies are offered at 156 tertiary institutions in the country, and 9 (1 national, 8 private universities) have an independent tourism faculty, including the Faculty of Tourism at Wakayama University. Established in 2007, the Faculty is celebrating its tenth year in 2017.

The Faculty situates its mission with planning, management and development issues evolving around social and cultural factors of the nation, its regions, community and the environment rather than the industry-focused agenda of business, hospitality and service. This rationalises the selection of the articles in this special issue. This focus, however, does not disregard the recent increase in international (inbound) tourism, which is demanding a rapid and diverse development of infrastructure (especially accommodation and regional transport), services (e.g. multi-lingual interface), catering for diversity (e.g. Halal food) as well as human resource capacity. As noted above, the government has set a new target of “40 million foreign visitors by 2020, and 60 million by 2030” (Government of Japan, 2015) with major international events in sight (2019 Rugby World Cup, 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2021 Kansai World Masters Games). This promotes and demands local and international engagement, which is the direction the Faculty is taking, also supported by the establishment of the new national research institute, Center for Tourism Research, established within Wakayama University in April, 2016. The Center, in close collaboration with the Faculty of Tourism, is aiming to serve as a research hub that facilitates research interaction nationally, within the Asia Pacific region, and globally with ten priority research units including sustainability, management and development, as well as forming close partnerships with major, national and international tourism research bodies.

Two specific issues surrounding tourism research in Japan should be pointed out here. First, although there is a substantial pool of knowledge accumulated in the historic development of social sciences in Japan, unlike in natural sciences, its internationalisation has lagged behind, mainly owing to language. This is certainly the case with tourism studies in particular; there is still a scarcity of research publication on Japanese tourism written in English, especially by researchers based in Japan. This special issue is one attempt to fill that gap. The second issue is that in Japan, while large cities have made significant economic progress, rural mid-sized to small cities have suffered decline, represented by phenomenon like kaso (depopulation). The situation is serious even compared with other developed nations. There is a high expectation that tourism will ease or solve these regional problems and, therefore, tourism research has closely aligned with sustainable regional development.

The editors and contributors to the issue are from the Faculty of Tourism and Center for Tourism Research at Wakayama University. Supported by the Center for Tourism Research as a new Japanese research institute, the special issue will make a unique contribution to tourism research, particularly those focused on sustainable regional and community development, aiming to put forward a critical and visionary perspective for the future development of tourism research globally.