Japan's tourism agency said it will leave decisions on dual pricing and lodging taxes — measures being adopted at popular destinations to curb overtourism — to individual operators rather than intervene at the government level.
Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Norio Kimura, speaking at an online news conference for foreign correspondents, declined to take a position when asked about the government's stance on dual pricing and lodging taxes, saying the government would not comment on rates set for foreign tourists, the agency said on the 13th.
The agency's position is that introducing or raising tourism and lodging taxes, as well as charging overseas visitors more than Japanese residents, is a matter for each operator to decide.
Korean Visitors on Track to Top 10 Million This Year
A total of 7,420,300 Korean tourists visited Japan from January through August this year, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. At that pace, the annual figure is set to surpass 10 million for the first time.
Korean visitors to Japan reached a record 9,459,600 in 2025 and have been rising every year. If dual pricing and lodging taxes spread across Japanese destinations, the costs felt by Korean travelers will inevitably climb.
The concentration of tourism within Japan also shows up in the data. Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto account for 60% of all overnight stays by foreign visitors. The Japan Tourism Agency has set a dispersal target of raising annual overnight stays by foreign visitors in regional cities to 130 million by 2030.
But regional overnight stays totaled 60.56 million in 2025, less than half the target. Nikkei reported that illegal short-term rentals are proliferating even in luxury apartment buildings in Tokyo's Minato Ward, causing friction with residents.
A sharp drop in Chinese visitors is another variable. The agency said Chinese tourist numbers have fallen about 50% year-on-year each month since relations between Japan and China cooled late last year. Still, with visitors from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere increasing, total foreign visitor numbers through August recovered to the same level as a year earlier.
The Japanese government is maintaining its targets of 60 million inbound visitors by 2030, 15 trillion yen in spending (about 127 trillion won) and 250,000 yen in spending per visitor (about 2.11 million won).