Visit Japan and the Government Will Cover Half of Your Expenses

Japan has seen an incredible drop in the number of tourists entering the country. In April for example, only 2,900 tourists visited Japan. That is 99% less than the 2,926,685 people who visited the country last year in the same month. The first time that figure was below the 10,000 mark was in 1964, when the Japan Tourism Agency first began compiling these statistics.

What’s interesting is that April was the seventh consecutive month since October, that Japan has seen a decline in visitors. It first saw a significant drop in visitors from South Korea and a devastating typhoon halted the trend of increasing numbers of visitors from overseas.

Now in an effort to try to restart the industry, officials in Japan are considering a plan that would see the government pay half of foreign tourists’ travel expenses, Japan Times reports. For now it is just a proposal. If it gets approved, it would cost 1.3 trillion Yen ($12 billion) and could start as early as July 2020, according to local media reports. No details have been made public on how it would work exactly and what it would cover or what the exclusions are.

Japan expanded its travel restrictions in early April, barring entry to foreign nationals from about 70 countries, including all parts of China and South Korea, as well as the United States and most of Europe. Subsidizing travel for tourists is dependent on easing these restrictions first.

A similar plan is also being considered in Sicily, once Italy opens up to international travel.