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[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the first meeting of the Council for the Development of a Tourism Vision to Support the Future of Japan at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, following a discussion on the current state and issues of tourism, the members exchanged views.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address,

“The Abe Cabinet gives top priority to the economy and has just launched new initiatives aimed at achieving a GDP of 600 trillion yen. As part of that, since tourism is an important engine for growth, the Abe Cabinet has been exerting political leadership and working intensively to alleviate visa restrictions, expand tax exemptions, and enhance the CIQ system, among other measures.

As a result, the number of foreign tourists to Japan, which was 8 million people in 2012, is expected to grow to close to 20 million people this year. The amount these tourists spend in Japan was previously 1 trillion yen per year, but for the first time this amount will likely exceed 1 trillion yen in the July to September quarter alone. As such the amount spent by tourists this year is expected to greatly surpass three times what it was previously, reaching somewhere around 3.5 trillion yen this year.

Japan is blessed with rich tourism resources and is also located next to countries in Asia that are experiencing remarkable growth. Japan therefore holds great potential as a tourism-oriented country.
However, we also face many issues.

For example, it is hard to book a hotel room, our Wi-Fi environment is lacking, it is hard to use railways and buses, there are few places where people can take out money, and it is hard to understand explanations of our traditional culture. We need to pay close attention to the opinions of visitors from around the world, who not only use different languages, but also have different cultures, histories, and national characters.

I believe that we must welcome new visitors while increasing the number of repeat visitors, and to do so we must address these issues and work to improve them.

Each year, France is visited by 80 million people. The United Kingdom, an island nation like Japan, is visited by 30 million. 

Twenty million is just a midway point. The keywords for us are ‘regions’ and ‘consumption.’
We need to tailor our work to the individual needs of the travelers who visit us, taking into account their age, income level, whether they are in a group or travelling alone, and other factors. In doing so, we must not focus only on the ‘Golden Route,’ but instead cater to global needs with the charms of all areas across Japan.

We should not limit ourselves to past precedent. I would like you to exhibit bold wisdom and produce a thorough vision and roadmap that will take us to the next stage.

Under the policy of ‘doing everything that the Government can possibly do,’ I am determined to have politics stand at the forefront to promote efforts toward building a new Japan that is worthy of being called a tourism-oriented country. Thank you very much.”