Although the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan and their travel consumption may be affected by Japan-Korea relations and epidemic diseases, tourism itself has been growing against the background of the expansion of the world inbound tourism market, economic growth in the Asian region, improved accessibility because of the development of LCCs (Low-cost carriers), easing of requirements for obtaining a tourist visa to Japan, and the like. As a result, Japan’s economy has been revitalizing, and also various social implications have been arising; for example, civic pride has been fostered through the interaction between tourists and local residents. In the future, sustainable improvement of enticing foreign tourists is desired through increasing the amount of their travel consumption, attracting more foreign tourists to local towns, responding to the situation after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, implementing Two-Way Tourism 21, securing human resources, and so on.

With a quarter of a century having passed since the establishment of the system, there are now 1,160 “Michi no Eki” locations across Japan. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism set up the “Study Group on Planning New Forms of Michi no Eki” with the purposes of providing recommendations to build new phases or “Michi no Eki” in order to further accelerate regional revitalization and holding discussions to manifest new strategies to achieve this. This paper presents recommendations compiled by the Study Group in November 2019.

“MaaS (Mobility as a Service)” has been introduced as a new concept that arose in Finland, Europe. With aiming at a shift away from personal ownership of automobiles, this concept intends to combine public transportation, car sharing, taxies and so on so that you can utilize all transportation means in town via your smartphone. Further, this concept at present draws attention also as a solution to various issues in the society such as digitalization of transportation, new industry creation and aging population. This paper introduces the basic concept of MaaS with showing examples and definitions and further describes the expected effect and utilization possibility of MaaS in the sightseeing industry in Japan.

This paper presents the current situation and issues in Japan in a comprehensive manner as possible on how disaster information is provided to international visitors. This paper comprises seven chapters: Chapter 1 provides an introduction, Chapter 2 discusses on the positioning of foreigners in regional disaster prevention plans, Chapter 3 presents issues that foreigners face in the event of a disaster, Chapter 4 discusses on the Disaster Multilingual Support Center promoted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Chapter 5 examines a the Eastern Iburi Earthquake that struck Hokkaido in 2018 and the responses made by the prefecture, and Chapter 6 describes the tools available for international visitors in the event of a disaster. The paper closes with a conclusion in Chapter 7.

This article discusses how to make it safe for inbound tourists to use a rental car in Japan. From a review of recent research trends, the use of rental cars by inbound tourists to Japan has been progressively revealed. From a survey on the reservation methods provided by Japanese rental car operators, many operators have websites in multiple languages. And some operators provide information on safe driving and Japanese traffic rules. According to a survey of rental car operators, it is clear that they put emphasis on providing explanations about safe driving and traffic rules in Japan when they lend a car.

The number of foreign tourists to local areas has increased in line with the development of international flights to regional airports. Therefore, the development of international flights to regional airports will likely continue to be effective for attracting foreign tourists to local areas in the future. On the other hand, the passengers on international flights to regional airports are mainly foreign tourists stimulated by the launch of the new route, so it is necessary to take measures for the "stabilization of demand". One of the issues for the stabilization of demand is to develop new routes gradually. On average over the past ten years, one route has been established every three years.

First, in regard to contents tourism, I will outline policy observations, circumstances leading to it becoming prevalent in society, and research concerns. These will be introduced while using the results of the author’s research. Next, by outlining trends in the contents industry market and anime industry market, I will discuss the possibilities of inbound promotion. Finally, using spatial concepts derived from contents tourism research, as well as showing future research and practical issues, I will explain the necessity of maintaining a contents archive and database.

In recent years, although the number of annual fatalities in traffic accidents in Japan is following a downward trend, the rate of decrease is shrinking. In order to reduce the number of traffic accidents more effectively, it is necessary to implement traffic safety measures based on the drivers’ awareness toward traffic safety. To understand traffic safety awareness of different countries and regions, this study conducted a questionnaire survey with drivers in Japan, Italy, and Egypt as a part of the IATSS research project. Although there was undeniably bias in the data samples, the characteristics of drivers’ awareness on traffic safety in each country were identified through comparing and analyzing their tolerance toward traffic violations and dangerous driving behaviors.