Japan travel industry calls for offering free passports to 18-yr-olds

The Japanese government should offer free passports to 18-year-olds who have legally become adults to motivate more young people to travel abroad, the head of a travel industry group said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.

Citing that just around 17 percent of Japanese citizens had a passport as of 2023, Hiroyuki Takahashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Travel Agents, expressed concern that “opportunities for youth to travel abroad have been greatly reduced.”

“This is problematic when we think about the development of people with a global mindset,” said Takahashi, who also serves as chairman of major travel agency JTB Corp.

Overseas travel from Japan has struggled to return to pre-COVID pandemic levels due to a weak yen and a surge in travel costs, he said, adding that he plans to propose the passport distribution idea to the central government, targeting those who have come of age.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of Japanese nationals who traveled abroad between January and July 2024 stood at 6.85 million, down 38.9 percent compared with the same period in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Takahashi said he believes gifting new adults a five-year passport will encourage overseas travel, while providing passports to children upon finishing junior high school is another option, as it could “raise the number of senior high schools conducting overseas school trips.”

While inbound tourism to Japan has boomed, foreign airline companies will not be incentivized to “start new routes to Japan without a certain level of outgoing travelers,” Takahashi said.

In order to meet the Japanese government’s goal of 60 million inbound tourists in 2030, an increase in international flights to and from Japan is also needed, which can be attained by lifting the number of outbound travelers to at least 30 million in the same year, he noted.

Overseas trips will be pitched at a tourism expo to be held between Sept. 26 and 29 at a major convention center in Tokyo, which the Japan Association of Travel Agents is organizing with others.

“We need to bring the number of outbound Japanese travelers to over 2 million people, or the same level as 2019,” by 2025, Takahashi said.

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