Yokoso Japan

How the Visit Japan Campaign Came About
The Minister for Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced at a round table conference of cabinet ministers on December 24, 2002 that the 'Inbound Tourism Initiative of Japan' had been formulated in cooperation with other related ministries and agencies to promote foreign tourist traffic to Japan. The Initiative is based on the 'Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Policy Management and Structural Reform 2002' (approved at a cabinet meeting on June 25, 2002). In comparison to the 16 million Japanese traveling overseas annually, only 5 million foreign tourists, less than a third of the former figure, visit our country. The Initiative aims to lessen the gap at the earliest possible stage. For the above purpose, a decision was made to launch the Visit Japan Campaign as a part of the 'Strategy to Promote Inbound Tourism,' which is one of the key strategies enumerated in the Initiative. The 'Strategic Meeting of the Inbound Tourism Initiative of Japan' was held under the auspices of the Minister for Land, Infrastructure and Transport on March 26, 2003 with the objective to unite the forces of the public and private sectors and initiate the Visit Japan Campaign, for which the Visit Japan Campaign Headquarters was established. The Secretariat office of the Headquarters was then opened on April 1, 2003 and has started to take action in realizing the target of attracting '10 million foreign tourists to visit Japan by the year 2010.'