Just 17.5 per cent of Japanese currently hold a passport, according to a recent study, a figure that industry experts say reflects the growing preference for domestic travel amid a weak yen, rising flight costs and heightened concerns about safety in many parts of the world.
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The figure, drawn from research conducted through the Newt travel app, places Japan well behind several developed economies in terms of international travel readiness. In comparison, about 40 per cent of South Koreans, 50 per cent of US citizens and 60 per cent of Taiwanese hold valid passports.
Those findings align with research by the outbound promotion division of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), according to executive director Hiroshi Tanimura.
“The research we have done especially indicates that young people are not willing to travel overseas and prefer to travel within Japan,” he told This Week in Asia.
“The weak yen is one big reason why overseas travel is 70 per cent of what it was before the pandemic.”
Even more worrying is that business travel has picked up a lot of the slack, recovering to more than 80 per cent of pre-pandemic figures, leaving the leisure market at just 53 per cent, according to Tanimura.
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