How to avoid "overtourism" in Japan?

How to avoid "overtourism" in Japan?

8/28/2019 2:52:07 AM

Some statistics on how many tourists each prefecture receives can be found here.

There’s a little English language summary of some key findings here.

Last year, the top ten prefectures for overnight stays by foreigners
were:

Tokyo Osaka Hokkaido Kyoto Okinawa Chiba Fukuoka Aichi Kanagawa
Yamanashi

The ten least popular prefectures were:

Shimane (one of my personal favourites) Kochi Fukui Yamaguchi (another
underrated gem) Tokushima Akita Fukushima Yamagata Tottori Saitama

Basically if you want to avoid the crowds then Tohoku and Shikoku are your best bets.

I visited Japan last year after four years away and was really shocked by the sheer amount of visible foreigners in Tokyo these days. Tokyo has always been full of English-speakers but the change in 4 years is amazing.

I went up to Fukushima and Yamagata though and the only visible foreigners I saw were one elderly British couple. The stats confirm it isn’t massively popular with other Asians either.

Map showing hotel rooms occupancy rate in 2018, the deep blue prefectures have less than 55% occupancy, which probably means that you can go there without worrying too much about contributing to overtourism:

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Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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