Inbound recovery comes with mounting challenges
The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan (inbound tourists) is recovering rapidly, surpassing the pace seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Japan Tourism Agency’s “Trends in Tourism Consumption by International Tourists” (preliminary figures for January 2025), international visitors to Japan spent a record-breaking 8.1395 trillion yen in 2024 – a 69.1% increase from 2019. The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a record high of 36,869,900.
Key factors behind this rapid recovery include the restart and expansion of international flights to and from Japan, the resumption of cruise services, the opening of new lodging facilities, the attractiveness of Japanese culture, high-quality customer service, and the weak yen. Together, these factors have helped globalize Japan’s tourism industry, making it easier for international travelers to explore the country.
The rise in tourist numbers will bring substantial benefits to local economies. In popular destinations such as Kyoto and Hokkaido in particular, revenue from inbound travelers is a vital source of regional income. On the other hand, various issues have emerged regarding the sustainability of tourist destinations.
First, globalized tourism encourages cross-border business expansion. One after another, foreign high-class hotel chains are entering the Japanese market, intensifying competition with local hotels and ryokan (traditional Japanese inns). While the entry of foreign companies stimulates local economies, it also heightens competition within regional tourism sectors.
Second, the growing number of tourists is having an impact on the daily lives of local residents. In Kyoto, for example, city buses are often overcrowded owing to the surge in tourist numbers, hindering access for local residents. In addition, issues such as noise and littering in residential areas are affecting daily life and cannot be ignored. These examples of tourism pollution, or overtourism, illustrate the downside of a globalized tourism industry.
Third, without proper management, resources like historical buildings and natural landscapes that make destinations attractive will inevitably deteriorate and face other negative impacts. For example, on Mt. Fuji, a rapid increase in climbers has caused serious problems with waste and toilet sanitation. To tackle these challenges, measures such as climbing regulations, tolls and conservation donation have been introduced to ensure the sustainable preservation of tourism resources.
As tourism grows more globalized, new perspectives are needed to balance economic benefits with the protection of local residents’ quality of life and tourism resources. I believe the concept of “commoning” offers a potential solution.
“Commoning” as a response to overtourism
If tourism globalization lowers local residents’ quality of life (QOL) or harms the regional environment, both residential areas and tourist sites will deteriorate. Over the medium to long term, tourism spending will drop as degraded destinations attract fewer tourists.
At present, tourism policy primarily follows two approaches to maintain order in tourist destinations.
The first approach seeks to manage tourists by utilizing pricing mechanisms as rules specific to the destination. Each tourist is regarded as a rational decision-maker, guided by pricing related to travel expenses such as transportation, accommodation, food, and entry to tourist sites. In other words, this approach seeks to regulate interaction between tourists and destinations through supply and demand in the tourism market.
Venice, Italy, receives approximately 30 million tourists annually, but this has led to rising rents, deteriorating public services, and a roughly 70% decline in the local population over the past 70 years. To tackle overtourism, the city introduced a 5-euro daily tax in 2024 for day-trippers visiting the historic city center, where many tourist attractions are concentrated. While the tourist tax aims to curve excessive tourist numbers and protect residents’ daily life, it also serves an incentive to regulate tourist behavior.
The second approach emphasizes local residents’ leadership in creating community-specific rules to safeguard daily life, along with tailored pricing systems. Tourists are expected to act with consideration for local residents, placing their well-being and happiness above personal interests. For example, in Venice, where there are no buses or trains, the Vaporetto (water buses) serves as a vital means of transportation for locals and tourists. As overtourism leads to significant congestion, local residents are now given boarding priority over tourists.
These two approaches affect tourist behavior: the first requires tourists to bear costs that reflect the value of the services they receive, and the second encourages them to act with consideration for local residents. The example of Venice demonstrates that both policies are grounded in locally tailored rules, aligning with the concept of “commoning.” “Commoning” refers to the cultivation and maintenance of relationships among the people involved with shared places (commons) in order to jointly manage commons that transcends the boundaries between public and private sectors.
In some Japanese hot spring resorts, locals in the tourism sector carefully manage the hot spring sources by regulating water distribution. This helps prevent the springs – shared by both residents and tourists – from drying up. If tourism-related businesses are allowed unrestricted use of the hot springs, the water supply may decrease, ultimately having a negative impact on the whole area. To avoid this outcome, locals engaged in tourism take the lead in creating rules for hot spring use and managing the sources with a long-term perspective.
As these examples illustrate, adopting the concept of commoning can help protect shared place, namely tourist destinations, while enabling local residents and tourists to coexist.
Shifting from conventional tourism to a new industry rooted in “place”
More than two decades have passed since the Japanese government first announced its growth strategy of becoming a tourism-oriented country. Traditional tourism followed a business model that treated tourist destinations as places for tourists. Now, a shift toward a sustainable approach rooted in commoning is essential.
The natural landscapes and cultural heritage are valuable resources for people who live there. Commoning emerges as members of social groups, namely local residents, take responsibility for these resources and seek to benefit from them. Furthermore, since commoning involves a form of physical and ideological enclosure based on shared values (rules), I believe its expansion can enhance the societal influence of regional communities.
In today’s globalized tourism landscape, tourists can significantly affect the lives of local residents, making it necessary to invite them in commoning when needed. In other words, instead of separating tourists from locals and treating them as exceptions, the concept of commoning emphasizes including both as members of local community, united by shared values (rules) – “creating a town that is good to live in and good to visit.” It means that local residents’ lives take priority, and tourists are welcomed afterward.
Naturally, local residents should be the main actors in shaping the town they live in. A shift in perspective is crucial – from commercializing tourist destinations mainly by tourism sectors based outside the area to starting with town-building by local residents as a place to live.
Accordingly, I highlight the necessity of moving away from departure-based tourism toward place-based industry in tourist destinations. In this context, “place-based industry” describes an approach that redefines tourist destinations not merely as spaces for consumption, but places where residents and visitors share values (rules).
Some local communities in Japan have already begun to adopt this approach. Kyoto’s Machiya – traditional wooden townhouses renovated into lodging facilities – allow visitors to experience the city’s distinctive atmosphere. Kyo-machiya, often called “unagi no nedoko (bed for eels)” because of their long and narrow form, have become a popular attraction among foreign tourists.
While these traditional townhouses are located in residential areas, a growing number have become unoccupied. To tackle this problem, Kyoto-based businesses are working to preserve and repurpose them. Beyond being iconic features of Kyoto’s historic cityscape, these structures also embody the idea of commoning. Kyo-machiya represent place-driven tourism, or a place-based industry, as they offer tourists the opportunities to stay in homes once inhabited by local residents.
Such places, formed through consensus between tourists and local residents, may encourage repeat visits rather than one-off tourism. By fostering more commons – places where locals and tourists share values (rules) – we can cultivate a place-based industry distinct from conventional tourism. Such an industry, I believe, can drive regional economic growth and take the lead in shaping new forms of community.
* The information contained herein is current as of January 2025.
* The contents of articles on Meiji.net are based on the personal ideas and opinions of the author and do not indicate the official opinion of Meiji University.
* I work to achieve SDGs related to the educational and research themes that I am currently engaged in.
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