2021 Volume 67 Issue 2 Pages 69-83
Tsushima City (Nagasaki Prefecture) is located on the border with South Korea. In recent years, with the opening of a regular high-speed shipping route between Tsushima and Busan in 1999, tra.c between the two countries has increased. From then, many Korean tourists have visited Tsushima. Although the number of tourists to Tsushima increased gradually from 1999 to 2010, it remained around 50,000 to 60,000 a year. Due to the decrease in the numbers of Korean tourists to Japan caused by the 2011 nuclear accident, ship companies operating between Hakata and Busan changed their routes from Hakata to Tsushima, where is closer and cheaper in fare. The number of visitors in Tsushima incleased so dramatically as to exceed 400,000 per year in 2018 and investments in tourism increased. However, as the Japanese government tightened export restrictions to South Korea, the “boycott Japan movement” that occurred in South Korea drastically reduced the number of visitors from July 2019. In March 2020, due to the spread of COVID-19 infection, the entry from South Korea into Tsushima was banned, and the number of visitors to Japan has dropped to zero. The tourism industry in Tsushima has been damaged. But as the transition of workers from other industries to tourismrelated industries has not been remarkable, the impact on the local residents is not so serious. That is, the rapid increase of tourists does not cause major changes in the industrial structure. If tourism-related industries are needed to be centered on the industry of Tsusima, long-term measures will be needed.
