Tourism and Investment in Japan

Recent Japanese corporate sentiment is cooling due to trade friction between the US and China. In addition to the trade war, rising consumption tax rate to 10% scheduled in October is feared to be a further blow to the Japanese economy. The consumption tax is believed to be hiked as planed as the government officially decided to raise it in June. However, according to Tankan, a survey of corporate sentiment by the Bank of Japan made public on last July, the business conditions of large-scale manufacturing have deteriorated for the second consecutive year, and the economic outlook is unpredictable. Under these circumstances, the Japanese government will provide point benefits to consumers when they purchase products, services etc. by cashless payments for nine months until June 2020, with the aim of preventing a drop in consumption after the tax increase and promoting cashless payments. Payments by Credit card, electronic money and QR code using smartphones are...

The Chubu region is one of the most concentrated areas of manufacturing industries in Japan including the aircraft and automobile industry. The Tokai Ring Expressway runs through three prefectures of Aichi, Gifu and Mie which consist of the Chubu region in a ring shape. The road dedicated only to automobiles with a total length of about 160 km is being constructed connecting major cities within a radius of 30-40 km from Nagoya, the largest city in the region. It is connected to national highways such as the Tomei Expressway, the Meishin Expressway, the Chuo Expressway and the Tokai Hokuriku Expressway forming a wide-area network running through main cities in the area. The road is divided into east and west section and the east section was developed first. At present, about east half of the total extension is open. In the eastern section opened in 2005, business locations and industrial parks along the road have increased dramatically, contributing to the revita...

Aichi Sky Expo which has one of the largest land area as an exhibition hall in Japan opened in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture. It has six exhibition halls, multipurpose areas adjacent to an international airport. Such location is the first case in Japan and an exceptional advantage of this hall. The site area including parking lots is 287,000 square meters, which is on par with other major exhibition halls in Japan such as Tokyo Big Sight and Makuhari Messe. There are six exhibition halls of 10,000 square meters each. “Exhibition Hall A” aiming for concerts and live events has 20 meters height and can accommodate approximately 6,500 people in a theater style where chairs are lined up like cinema seats. Since there are no pillars inside, it can be arranged for various purposes. The other five halls can be used up to 50,000 square meters by removing the partitions. There are 18 meeting rooms with a size of 30 to 800 square meters, which can accommodate meetings of 10 to 400 peop...

Shirakawa-go, UNESCO World Heritage Site Gassho style houses were built in Shirakawa-go (Shirakawa Village) and neighboring areas from around 1800 until the early 1900s.  Photo provided by Shirakawa village office Some of the old buildings are said to have stood for about 300 years. In December 1995, Shirakawa-go was registered as the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since then, every year lots of foreign tourists are heading to Shirakawa-go which is a Japanese mountainous settlement in what was once considered a wild and unexplored region. Because of the area’s natural environment, with high mountains and heavy snowfall, interaction with neighboring regions was limited providing the conditions for the development of unique cultural practices and lifestyles such as Gassho Style Houses. Gassho style houses are residences built from wooden beams that support their charachteric, steeply sloped, thatched roofs that meet at a high peak. The shape ...