Spatial Concentration and Dispersion of Foreign Travelers by Nationality at Prefectural Level in Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to assess the geographical concentration and dispersion of foreign travelers to Japan by nationality at the prefectural level, using the data in 2013 and 2023. After providing an overview of the foreign travelers to Japan and the tourism policies by the government, the paper investigates two types of diversities in the foreign travelers to Japan by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI): a diversity of nationalities over prefectures and a diversity of prefectures over nationalities. The paper then examines the concentration of foreign travelers to Japan by nationality and prefecture by the location quotient (LQ). The paper finally demonstrates how the foreign travelers to Japan actually developed over the last decade. The paper sheds light on the HHI and the LQ to refine our understanding of the spatial concentration and dispersion of foreign travelers to Japan, which is one of the key contributions of this paper.