After more than two years of isolation, Japan will once again welcome international travelers this week.
On June 10, foreign tourists can enter Japan.
However, the government's priority still lies in increasing the number of domestic tourism, said Tadashi Shimura, president of the Japanese Association of Travel Agents.
Even before the pandemic, domestic tourism contributed much more to gross domestic product than foreign tourism.
Overall tourism contributed 28 trillion yen ($ 211 billion) to Japan's economy in 2019, with nearly 80% - or 22 trillion yen - coming from domestic tourists, according to a report by the Japan Tourism Agency.
Japan welcomed about 32 million foreign visitors in 2019 and had been on track to reach its 40 million goal in 2022.
However, the pandemic caused the arrival numbers to drop rapidly, and there were only 250,000 foreign visitors in 2022.
