More tourists than ever are coming to Japan. Which is, in the eyes of the government, just fine, as it hopes to welcome 60 million visitors a year by 2030. However, both the central and regional governments are grappling with ways to get tourists to spread the love across Japan and stop crowding into its three major cities.
Tourism is already having an adverse effect on hotel pricing. Tourist demand for swanky accommodations and their willingness to pay top dollar thanks to the weak yen have driven up prices past where many Japanese business travelers can afford to pay them.
Another issue is the concentration of tourists. We’ve written extensively about issues caused by overtourism, such as crowded buses, trespassing, and just outright terrible behavior. (Pro tip: Don’t punch people in the face while you’re in Japan. That’s bad.)
The issue isn’t that tourism is bad or that tourists are naturally less polite than anyone else. A big part of the issue is that tourism is so concentrated in Japan’s “big three” cities (三大都市; sandai toshi) – Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.
The lodging rates make this trend starkly clear. According to a report by the Japan Travel Agency earlier this year, from 2019 to 2023, the number of people staying in lodging facilities (hotels, onsen, private housing rentals, etc.) climbed 13.6 points – from 72.57 million to 82.43 million – in the country’s three major cities. Stays in the Big Three represent 72.1% of all tourist stays in the nation.

However, the rest of Japan didn’t feel that love. Indeed, the number of people staying in regional Japan fell from 43.09 million in 2019 to 31.91 million in 2023. That’s a massive dip of 25.9% – and a mere 27.9% of the tourist love.
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Even Nara can’t get people to stay overnight
70% of all travel dollars, the JTA estimates, get spent in the big three cities. We can also see this imbalance in the average number of nights stayed in a location.
At the top end, the average stay in Tokyo is 5.0 nights. By contrast, people stay the least in Nara, where the average stay is only 0.2 nights. That’s pretty amazing when you consider that Nara is one of Japan’s top tourist draws between the deer park and its historic Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.
Tourist overnights in Nara in September 2023 came out to 29,310 people – a drop of around 30 percent compared to 2019. Despite the area building a slew of new lodging facilities, tourists prefer to stay in nearby Osaka and Kyoto. That robs Nara of the economic benefits of tourism – and contributes to the continued overcrowding of both Osaka and Kyoto to boot.
Asahi Shimbun reports that even the areas around major destinations don’t see the benefits of tourism. Chiba Prefecture only has an average stay of 0.3 nights, despite being home to Narita Airport as well as Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea.
How you can help
Both the central and regional governments are doing their part to get tourists to spread out a little more evenly across the country. You can do your part by planning trips to great areas of Japan outside of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto – e.g., up-and-coming locations like Morioka and Yamaguchi, or even locations a little further out like Kanazawa and Izumo.
Planning a trip to Japan? Get an authentic, interpreted experience from Unseen Japan Tours and see a side of the country others miss!

"Noah [at Unseen Japan] put together an itinerary that didn’t lock us in and we could travel at our own pace. In Tokyo, he guided us personally on a walking tour. Overall, he made our Japan trip an experience not to forget." - Kate and Simon S., Australia


We hate paywalls. Our content remains both free and fiercely independent. If you love the values we stand for and want to help us expand our coverage of Japan, consider a recurring or one-time donation to the Unseen Japan Journalism Fund today.
Of course, everyone wants to see some of the sites in the major cities. That’s why they’re popular. You can still help out by looking for accommodations a little further afield – e.g., staying in Chiba when you visit Tokyo or planning a stay in Nara and then traveling to Osaka and Kyoto rather than vice-versa.
Want help planning a unique trip to Japan that includes something more than the common tourist traps? Contact us at Unseen Japan Tours to craft a custom itinerary that includes interpreted tours of local locations tourists otherwise can’t access. We’ll even help you book lodging at great rates.
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