[Umihito]

I've been thinking, with how much JNTO and all sorts of Japanese organisations have been really pushing the past few years to put Japan on the world tourism stage, will tourism ever be a major player to the country?

I mean, JNTO really has gone above and beyond with their campaigns, but those efforts never really seem to translate into tourist numbers. Sure, tourist numbers have gone up quite a bit since the campaigns started, but they're still nowhere near the types of numbers tourist-type countries have.

They seem to be focusing a lot on Western people, like Americans and British, but these still only make up a tiny part of the overall numbers.

Interest does seem to be there though. There are tonnes of people who love Japan right? And as far as I know, it's the only country to have a forum as modern, and civilized as this. Plus the other Japan forums around the internet buzzing, and the amount of links you get when searching on how to visit or live in Japan. Plus all the Japan festivals the US has, such as Japan Day in New York, Japan festivals in the middle states, Little Tokyo in the West, plus the Japan Foundation in London...

But still, tourism is relatively low.
So with all this going on, do you think Japan will EVER grow its tourism into a sizable thing? Do you think it'll ever find that boom in tourists its been craving for?

Do you even want the tourism to grow, or are you happy with how it is now?