Paper short abstract:

For 2020, the Japanese government has set a goal of 40 million inbound tourists. To promote tourism, new global campaigns have launched almost every year since 2016, when the goal was set. What themes have they promoted? How do the campaigns differ? And are they guilty of a kind of self-Orientalism?

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, tourism to Japan has increased exponentially, with the government aiming for 40 million tourists in 2020, double what it had originally planned for after it met the initial goal of 20 million by 2016. 2020 is a big year for Japan as it hosts the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, just after having hosted the Rugby World Cup 2019, and soon to hold the World Masters Games in 2021. Japan has therefore been, and continues to be, subject of significant global media attention, but also a major destination to travellers, too. To help meet the goal of 40 million, the Japan National Tourism Organization has launched new global promotional campaigns almost every year since 2016, when this goal was set, and a special Tokyo campaign for 2020 was launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2019. This paper examines the images and narratives about Japan presented in these campaigns. It will look at where focuses have shifted over the past few years, and where they remain the same. In all these campaigns, there are refences to Japan's present, to the ultramodernity of Tokyo, and the nation's pop culture appeal, but also to its image as somewhere futuristic, full of robots and technology. At the same time, campaigns often heavily draw on the past and on traditions, making links between history and the present, suggesting a continuity that is framed in terms of uniqueness. While a certain degree of poetic licence is expected in marketing, to what extent are these campaigns promoting an idealised, self-Orientalised image of the country?