ABSTRACT
As tourism plays an important role in the Japanese economy, its ongoing contributions are crucial to the nation’s future economic growth. In fact, the Japanese government has actively promoted tourism, especially in the past decade, and the number of international tourists reached more than 28 million in 2017, more than triple the number in the early 2000s. Although Japan is ranked as one of the major inbound tourism destinations in Asia, the country has a high risk of exposure to a range of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and floods. International tourists are considered vulnerable to these natural hazards because they often have limited local and hazard knowledge. In addition, they may face difficulties when accessing important information during a disaster. Thus, this chapter first overviews the current trends in Japanese inbound tourism. Then, it discusses and highlights the challenges and issues that governments, including those at both the national and local level, as well as the tourism industry face in relation to reducing the vulnerability of international tourists in this era of rapid inbound growth.
