The Nikkei newspaper started running articles about the peaking of the inbound tourism income bubble, pointing out that since the end of 2015 there has been a downwards shift in per-visitor tourist spending.

There has been a surge in cash hoardings, with an extra 6.2% ten thousand yen bills going into circulation last year, the highest jump in demand since 2002.

The local operation of Expedia is very Japanese. However, like other "Japanified" foreign-firm branches, they have lost their ability to recognize and respond to external trends.

When it comes to small company support, the words "vested interest" and "parasitic behavior" come to mind rather than "nurturing" and "creation".

Would Airbnb's business model be allowed under the new minpaku rules or not? Restrictive provisions of the new rules make it clear that most Airbnb renters will still be breaking the law.

Japanese companies are nothing if not secretive about successful B2B products and processes, especially in the emerging field of nutraceuticals.

According to the Japan Tourism Agency quarterly tourist survey, the number one thing that foreign tourists want to experience before coming to Japan is to try authentic Japanese food.

We first came across Rann shortly after he arrived in Japan, when he was helping out a media firm, and a little after that when he was appointed the CEO of an internet recruiting firm called Asia-net.

The Shoryudo project is a collaborative effort by the nine prefectures of Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Nagano, Mie, Shiga, Fukui, Ishikawa, and Toyama, to develop their rural destinations for foreign tourists.

The government declared in late December that it considers Bit coin a security like any other and will shortly legislate to regulate the trading of Bit coins by corporates.