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Since the initiation of the "Visit Japan Campaign (VJC)" in 2003, Japan witnessed a thriving international tourism industry, reaching its peak in 2019 before the global spread of COVID-19. The number of foreign visitors to Japan consecutively grew for eight years, from 2012 to 2019, surpassing 30 million tourists in 2018. Additionally, the outbound travel of Japanese citizens exceeded 20 million for the first time in 2019.
However, from December 2019, an unidentified viral pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, China, which was eventually designated as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization on February 11, 2020. Caused Japan reported its first domestic infection case on January 15, 2020. In response to the escalating virus spread, the Japanese government declared its first state of emergency on April 7, 2020. Subsequently, the Japanese tourism industry experienced a three-year slump from 2020 to 2022.
To revive the domestic tourism sector, the Japanese government introduced three consecutive policies: the "GO TO TRAVEL program" in July 2020, and others policies in April 2021 and October 2022. These initiatives successfully revitalized domestic travel among Japanese nationals. However, the "GO TO TRAVEL program" faced suspension on December 28, 2020, due to inadequate consideration of future measures in the event of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
The policy which was implemented from April 2021, learned from the experiences of the "GO TO TRAVEL program. Initially targeting travelers within their residential areas, the policy gradually expanded to adjacent administrative regions and areas within the same geographical scope. Predefined rules for pausing and resuming implementation in response to changing infection conditions enabled swift adaptation. Finally, the policy that was took over in October 2022, extending the applicable travel range nationwide, successfully restoring Japanese domestic travel to levels comparable to those in the same period in 2019 before the pandemic.
This paper analyzes Japan's tourism conditions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the three tourism support policies implemented by the government. Based on the effectiveness of these policies, the author concludes that, until complete control of the pandemic is achieved, tourism support policies should initially focus on small-scale tourism, with pre-established strategies for handling pandemic-related changes. As the vaccination rate increases, the policy scope can gradually expand, ensuring the long-term benefits of tourism policies.
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