Foreign Tourists: No, Japan Will Not Pay For Half Your Travel Costs

Above, the Godzilla mural at Toho Studios in Setagaya. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It had been reported in the media (including in this, your faithful, blog) that Japan was planning to entice tourists by offering to pay for half of their expense. 

I did question how Japan was going to do it and wondered about the details.

It turns out that there is no such plan in the works.

According to Forbes:

Last week, media reports quoted Hiroshi Tabata, the head of Japan’s tourism agency, as saying that they aimed to launch the Go To Travel campaign after COVID-19 was brought under control, in July at the earliest. 

According a budget document released by Japan’s economy ministry, the proposed plan would dole out travel vouchers toward lodging and dining, up to a maximum of 20,000 yen per person, per stay. That’s the equivalent of $185 US per person. 

“Currently, this means initiatives such as this will be aimed at people living in Japan only, and not overseas visitors. Support will be offered to cover a proportion of domestic travel expenses,” a spokesperson for the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) in London told the UK’s Independent newspaper. 

The original statement was quickly corrected to clarify that the proposed campaign would only cover a portion of travel costs for domestic travelers, but it was too late to stop the story from going viral. 

Numerous outlets around the world — from the UK’s Mirror to India’s News18 and many U.S. lifestyle sites and blogs — had already hastily picked up the story without the correction, which led to confusion.

This is one blogger who didn't "hastily" pick up the story. The story was out for at least a couple of days before I said anything. The original story wasn't corrected "quickly" enough to stop the story from going viral.

Oh, well, tough luck, folks! Enjoy the Godzilla mural photo anyway since we can't go there yet (even if it is 100% on our dime).

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