Shikoku Officials Halt Inbound Tourism Survey; Tout Inaccuracy of Counting Based on Visitors’ Physical Appearance

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:37 JST, September 30, 2024

The Shikoku District Transport Bureau decided to suspend a statistical survey counting the number of inbound travelers, in effect for 10 years, from this fiscal year.

The bureau commissioned tourist attractions and facilities in the region to record these numbers, but as some facilities determined whether tourists were from abroad based on their physical appearance, doubts were raised about the survey’s accuracy.

The survey took place in all four of the Shikoku region’s prefectures. The bureau asked 15 facilities in each prefecture to report the total number of travelers and the number of foreign visitors among them to the bureau. According to the survey, the number of overseas travelers was 529,000 in 24 locations in fiscal 2023, over six times that of the previous fiscal year.

The bureau announced it would stop the survey on Sept. 20. The decision came as some facilities recorded travelers as coming from overseas based on attributes such as skin color.

No specific survey methodology was prescribed by the bureau. Several facilities told the Yomiuri Shimbun travelers were determined as foreign based on appearance and the language they spoke.

Accommodation organizations were able to count accurately by asking for a passport on the basis of the Hotel Business Law. However, one representative of a tourist site explained, “When a group of tourists came, we asked the guide, but when individuals came, we decided on the basis of their appearance.”

Also, because locations surveying differed each fiscal year, the bureau stated the survey lacked accuracy and was invalid. As the survey is conducted independently by the bureau, it has no bearing on government statistics.

The Japan National Tourism Organization and the Japan Tourism Agency record these numbers by checking passports at immigration or interviewing travelers. Each local government also registers this data by interviewing tourists.

The bureau has left previous survey data up on their website. “We will consider how to handle these surveys in the future,” a representative said.

Masayuki Watanabe, a specially appointed professor from Daito Bunka University, said: “Perceiving someone as a foreigner based on only their appearance is not only inaccurate for a survey, but also constitutes a microaggression, which refers to hurting people by judging them based on assumptions and prejudices. Without meaning to, it leads to discrimination.”