Shinagawa station will be the Tokyo terminal of the new SCMaglev line. With direct access to the future SCMaglev train and its proximity to Haneda Airport, the area around Shinagawa station is positioned as an “international exchange hub which will lead economic growth” by the government. It will also serve as the gateway and the connection point for overseas visitors.

While the impact of COVID-19 is severely impacting on airports across Japan, particularly Haneda that enjoyed a great amount of benefits with the increased inbound tourists over the last few years, the airport has been taking positive long-term growth strategy even before pre-COVID-19, which should not be forgotten.

Yokohama announced its candidacy for Integrated Resort licenses in August 2019. The port city is just half an hour away from Tokyo and therefore attracts visitors to the capital. But for the same reason, nearly 90% of tourists are day trippers, compared to the average of 50% for the country as a whole. Yokohama has worked to promote inbound tourism in the area.

The increased number of inbound tourists has triggered a discussion on airport capacities and facilities upgrades across Japan. The benefits of airport privatization are major: improvement of airport management capabilities, greater transparency of airport usage fees, promotion of LCC entry, strengthening of airport infrastructures, and more overseas gateways, to name a few.

While preparing to join Tokyo and Osaka into a single mega region with the new SCMaglev train, Greater Nagoya also sees the need to strengthen its position as a hub city in Central Japan. Although the official opening date of SCMAGLEV is now expected to be postponed, a move to strengthen its position in the Chukyo region is underway. In terms of tourism, MICE, cruise tourism, and theme park are the sectors Greater Nagoya is working on.

In 2011, the government of Japan designated special districts for accelerating urban redevelopment within prime cities across the country, to improve their global commercial competitiveness. In the port town of Fukuoka, the city core area has been selected and two big projects are on-going.

Currently, inbound visitors come to Japan for shopping, gourmet food and beverages, hot springs and traditional cultural experiences. To attract tourists to revisit Japan many new tourism aspects are emerging. What one can find in Hokkaido is local culture and sports tourism.