{"id":27876,"date":"2022-10-11T06:22:26","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T06:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=27876"},"modified":"2022-10-11T06:22:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T06:22:30","slug":"japan-reopens-to-tourists-with-shuttered-souvenir-shops-hotel-staff-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=27876","title":{"rendered":"Japan reopens to tourists with shuttered souvenir shops, hotel staff shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reuters: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOKYO, Oct 10 – As Japan throws open its doors to visitors this week after more than two years of pandemic isolation, hopes for a tourism boom face tough headwinds amid shuttered shops and a shortage of hospitality workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Tuesday, Japan will reinstate visa-free travel<\/a> to dozens of countries, ending some of world’s strictest border controls to slow the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is counting on tourism to help invigorate the economy and reap some benefits from the yen’s slide to a 24-year low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arata Sawa is among those eager for the return of foreign tourists, who previously comprised up to 90% of the guests at his traditional inn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m hoping and anticipating that a lot of foreigners will come to Japan, just like before COVID,” said Sawa, the third-generation owner of the Sawanoya ryokan in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just over half a million visitors have come to Japan so far in 2022, compared with a record 31.8 million in 2019. The government had a goal of 40 million in 2020 timed with the Summer Olympics until both were upended by the coronavirus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuters: TOKYO, Oct 10 – As Japan throws open its doors to visitors this week after more than two years of pandemic isolation, hopes for a tourism boom face tough headwinds amid shuttered shops and a shortage of hospitality workers. From Tuesday, Japan will reinstate visa-free travel to dozens of countries, ending some of world’s strictest border controls to slow the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is counting on tourism to help invigorate the economy and reap some benefits from the yen’s slide to a 24-year low. Arata Sawa is among those eager for the return of foreign… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27878,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27876\/revisions\/27878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}