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.