From 16 – 18 September 2017 one of the largest tourism promotion events in the world – the Tourism Japan Expo – was held at Tokyo Big Sight. The biggest event of its kind in Japan, there were many booths from airline companies and tourist agencies as well as local governments. The first day was open to industry professionals and many seminars were held including one by the Japan Border Tourism Association (JBTA) titled ‘To Every Corner of Japan and Then Beyond: the Attraction of Border Tourism’. Speaking to an audience of over 40 people, Akihiro Iwashita introduced the concept of border tourism. He was followed by Masaru Mitani (Sakhalin Section, Wakkanai City) and Masahiro Yoneda (Hokuto Kanko) who talked about the fascination of visiting Sakhalin. Lastly, Yasunori Hanamatsu (Kyushu University) spoke about border tourism between Tsushima, Japan and Pusan, South Korea. Co-operation among universities, local government and the tourism industry to forge a new kind of border tourism is attracting considerable media interest and their will shortly be special features in some newspapers. UBRJ is keen to continue to contribute to the development of JBTA.
Anyone interested in JBTA may wish to attend the Tsushima/Pusan Border Tour and Japan International Border Studies Network (JIBSN) seminar being held 11 November 2017. Further information can be found here:
Eurasia Unit for Border Research (Japan)
