Tokyo >> The annual number of foreign visitors to Japan is expected to top 30 million this year for the first time ever. These visitors are spending their time in remarkably diverse ways, with an increasing number going to places that many Japanese people do not know well.

And the government is aiming to increase the number of foreign visitors to 40 million in 2020.

At a fireworks festival in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo, in late July, some of the paid seats were occupied by tourists from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Guiding the party in fluent Chinese was Koichi Yoshida, 36, who is known in Taiwan as a promoter for travel to Japan. The Chinese-language travel website that he runs is used by many tourists to decide where to go in Japan.

Yoshida has a unique career: He first enrolled in the National Defense Academy of Japan but then transferred to Keio University.

Yoshida initially hoped to join in the Self-Defense Forces because he experienced the Great Hanshin Earthquake as a young boy. However, he eventually changed his mind after realizing that “what we need in the future is soft power, such as culture and information.”

Yoshida started his business in Taiwan in 2013, taking advantage of the Chinese-language skills he acquired as a student. He launched a website specializing in travel to Japan, hoping to promote the best of Japan to the world.

Unfamiliar territory

Yoshida’s website is popular because it features sightseeing spots that are not familiar, even to many Japanese, offering foreign visitors the feeling of being front-runners in travel trends. His site provides useful details such as updates on cherry blossoms and how to make bus connections.

The website carries articles written by trend-conscious travel writers in Taiwan because they “understand the heart of Taiwan people,” Yoshida said.

In 2016, Yoshida’s company opened a store in Taipei to promote Japanese travel information, at which the Akita prefectural government held an event the following year to let visitors meet an Akita dog. The event was a great success, and visitors from Taiwan accounted for 45 percent of all non-Japanese overnight tourists to Akita Prefecture that year, according to the Japan Tourism Agency.

“If (visitors from oversea) spend money, that can help vitalize regional areas,” Yoshida said.

The number of repeat foreign travelers to Japan has grown, and many locations have raised their profiles thanks to travel blogs and postings on social media.

One example is the Maishima incinerator plant in Konohana Ward, Osaka. The facility has an impressive tower and is often featured on social media for its photogenic exterior.

Foreign visitors have accounted for about 30 percent of participants in facility tours in recent years. “There’s no odor at all, and the design is wonderful,” said Ren Ruoyue, a 22-year-old Chinese student.

Bloggers paid for traveling

As blogs and social media become increasingly influential, strategies to lure foreign visitors are also changing.

In July, two French popular bloggers were treated to drinks at Akakabe Saketen liquor shop in Kitakyushu. They got a firsthand experience of “kakuuchi,” the pratice of drinking alcohol while standing at a liquor shop, in hopes that they would promote the drinking culture that is said to have originated in the city.

The Ibaraki prefectural government invited a popular Taiwanese blogger in July to tour some popular sightseeing spots, paying hundreds of dollars in compensation, as well as the writer’s transportation and accommodation fees.

According to industry sources, rewards for popular bloggers from China and other places often range from $2,700 to nearly $9,000, and some bloggers even earn an annual income of nearly $180,000.

These fees are cheaper than holding promotional events overseas, which cost tens of thousands of dollars. “Now that many local governments are doing similar promotional activities, it’s hard for us to differentiate ourselves,” said a source involved in the tourism industry in Yamagata Prefecture, which invited well-known American bloggers in the summer last year.

“Many local governments take an impromptu approach in asking bloggers to write stories, without even looking into what each blogger specializes in,” said Makoto Watanabe, president of the operating company for a website specializing in news on tourism in Japan. “That kind of approach makes it difficult for them to see any results.”

It’s essential for local governments not to rely solely on social media, but to make efforts to combine it with traditional approaches such as holding promotional events.