＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
A few years ago, Chinese tourists visiting Japan were much talked about for their “explosive buying” of high-priced items. However, recently, such high-value spending has declined. Instead, “pilgrimages” to lesser-known tourist spots, “power spots,” and locations featured in anime movies, which have become popular on Instagram and other social media, seem to be on the rise.
1. From Material Consumption to Experience Consumption
When we say “from material consumption to experience consumption,” we generally mean a shift from a consumer trend that values the possession of goods to a consumer trend that values the experiences gained by purchasing goods and services.
This may be a slightly different perspective, but as material wealth spreads, it is natural for people to develop a desire to try new things and have exciting, unknown experiences rather than a desire for more “material things.” I believe this shift in people’s values is a sign of the times.
This applies not only to inbound tourists, but also to domestic consumption among Japanese people in general.
2. Future Inbound Outlook
(1) Steady Increase in Tourist Visitors
Currently, with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics approaching, efforts are being made to provide “omotenashi” (hospitality) to foreign visitors. This includes increasing the number of signs in English, Chinese, and Korean in public places and commercial facilities, and increasing the number of Chinese staff at drugstores and other locations.
If these efforts continue smoothly, the Japanese government’s “target number of foreign visitors to Japan” (40 million in 2020 and 60 million in 2030) may not seem like such an impossible dream.
In fact, according to independent estimates by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2018 reached 31.19 million.
In 2019, due to the worst-ever deterioration in Japan-South Korea relations, the number of South Korean visitors decreased, resulting in a cumulative total of 26.91 million visitors from January to October (a 3.1% increase from the same period last year). Even if the remaining two months remain at the same level as last year, the total is expected to remain at around 31.99 million, the same level as last year.
(2) Increased Understanding of Japan
In China and South Korea, government-sponsored “anti-Japanese education” is still being carried out and has been a problem for some time. I believe this is nothing but state-sponsored “hate speech.”
＜「反日教育」＞
However, I hope that young people today will realize that this biased education is nothing more than misguided “ideological education” if they actually visit Japan, see the reality of the country, and interact with Japanese people.
In the case of North Koreans, like those of new religious movements, they are mind-controlled by brainwashing education over a long period of time, so it may not be easy to escape.