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Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

cnn.com

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Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#21

Post by BariumBlue »

RugnirViking wrote: post #9
kalleboo wrote: post #3

Anecdotally from friends, I'd say the top three reasons are: * Lack of money * Lack of time off from work * Lack of English skills, making travel abroad intimidating. In previous generations this was counteracted by bus tours with Japanese guides, but those are seen as lame by the younger generations.

id probably add to that: Lots of hostile neighbors. Korea/japan (both koreas) relations aren't great, netiher are russia nor china. Meaning you gotta fly a long long way to get anywhere. Similar to how there are many people from american midwest whove never been abroad. living in europe all my life, almost everyone has been abroad here, but much much fewer have ever left europe, which is essentially what japanese peo…

Taiwan and Japan have friendly relations, and supposed to be a popular destination for Japanese tourists (this I couldn't find real stats on this).

There is also internal Japanese tourism - such as to Okinawa or Kyoto

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#22

Post by bigbluesax »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #8
kalleboo wrote: post #3

Anecdotally from friends, I'd say the top three reasons are: * Lack of money * Lack of time off from work * Lack of English skills, making travel abroad intimidating. In previous generations this was counteracted by bus tours with Japanese guides, but those are seen as lame by the younger generations.

Isn't the "Lack of English skills" easily solved with the plethora of translator devices and apps these days? About a decade+ ago (I think 2010-11), I remember a woman who sat next to me after Narita, traveling "to explore India." She carried a tiny device the size of a typical compact (make-up thing for person who wants/needs to make up). She had no idea about English but can communicate via her device and it was pr…

For me personally using a translator app just adds an additional layer of awkward to every interaction. Where you have to fiddle with it and the other person might not understand how to interact with it right away. It's not a huge problem, but if your not super confident already, it might be enough to discourage you. When I went to japan, lots of people where very hesitant to use their english. Like they didn't want to embarass themselves. I'd never really experienced that before, everywhere else I had gone to previously, people's drive to communicate was usually a lot stronger than their drive to hide weak language skills.

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#23

Post by CalRobert »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #8
kalleboo wrote: post #3

Anecdotally from friends, I'd say the top three reasons are: * Lack of money * Lack of time off from work * Lack of English skills, making travel abroad intimidating. In previous generations this was counteracted by bus tours with Japanese guides, but those are seen as lame by the younger generations.

Isn't the "Lack of English skills" easily solved with the plethora of translator devices and apps these days? About a decade+ ago (I think 2010-11), I remember a woman who sat next to me after Narita, traveling "to explore India." She carried a tiny device the size of a typical compact (make-up thing for person who wants/needs to make up). She had no idea about English but can communicate via her device and it was pr…

Easy to say when my native language is basically the lingua franca of the world, but in 2009 I went to China with a friend and we managed to get by fine with a combination of gestures and an offline translation app on my Palm Centro....

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#25

Post by bombcar »

Ekaros wrote: post #11

I have understood that Japan has strong domestic tourism market that caters to their market, that is short weekend or extended weekend holidays. That fit better in the work culture.

That is my understanding also, numerous internal destinations that are considered appropriate for various vacation lengths and prices; after all, airline prices get high when crossing the ocean.

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#26

Post by smokel »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #12
Brajeshwar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the "Lack of English skills" easily solved with the plethora of translator devices and apps these days? About a decade+ ago (I think 2010-11), I remember a woman who sat next to me after Narita, traveling "to explore India." She carried a tiny device the size of a typical compact (make-up thing for person who wants/needs to make up). She had no idea about English but can communicate via her device and it was pr…

Last year I've been asked by a guy for directions to the hotel where he was staying. It standed out for me because: a) he was clearly in his early 20s b) he asked me this after boarding the bus on the same stop as me c) he could find out the directions just by using a plethora of map/navigation (GPS for Americans) apps available here d) he was going the wrong way Just yesterday I saw a woman trying to find out which…

I'm in my 40s and I really love fooling around in real life. Observing printed maps by moving my entire body or my head towards it, is more relaxing than having to actively take out my phone and finger my way to the same information on this minuscule device.

I find interacting with sign posts or humans more enjoyable than living in the matrix where I have to find the correct bus provider website, learn to navigate its crappy user interface, finally having to revert to Google maps, and then get the suggestion to go by boat.

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#27

Post by wrp »

It's the expected inconvenience. TFA points this out rather indirectly, but I've been hearing from Japanese for years that they are dissuaded from travel by the expected hassles of going to countries that run less smoothly than Japan (which is nearly any place).

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#28

Post by zirgs »

resoluteteeth wrote: post #13
RugnirViking wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

id probably add to that: Lots of hostile neighbors. Korea/japan (both koreas) relations aren't great, netiher are russia nor china. Meaning you gotta fly a long long way to get anywhere. Similar to how there are many people from american midwest whove never been abroad. living in europe all my life, almost everyone has been abroad here, but much much fewer have ever left europe, which is essentially what japanese peo…

> id probably add to that: Lots of hostile neighbors. Korea/japan (both koreas) relations aren't great, netiher are russia nor china. Meaning you gotta fly a long long way to get anywhere. South Korea is one of the top international destinations for Japanese people. It has varied over time, but right now it actually may be the top destination.

It's not like they have many other options.

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#29

Post by Brajeshwar »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #12
Brajeshwar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the "Lack of English skills" easily solved with the plethora of translator devices and apps these days? About a decade+ ago (I think 2010-11), I remember a woman who sat next to me after Narita, traveling "to explore India." She carried a tiny device the size of a typical compact (make-up thing for person who wants/needs to make up). She had no idea about English but can communicate via her device and it was pr…

Last year I've been asked by a guy for directions to the hotel where he was staying. It standed out for me because: a) he was clearly in his early 20s b) he asked me this after boarding the bus on the same stop as me c) he could find out the directions just by using a plethora of map/navigation (GPS for Americans) apps available here d) he was going the wrong way Just yesterday I saw a woman trying to find out which…

Well, many a times, the analog method are way faster. When trying to figure out the direction of a public transport, especially underground, I like to quickly ask someone for the direction to which a train/tube is traveling to. It is way faster than using a smartphone underground or trying to find the signs that says so.

A habit I picked up when building digital/technology features -- how does this compete with pen/paper or an analog method.

Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

#30

Post by bombcar »

Ekaros wrote: post #20
bombcar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreign travelers often don’t have cell access, or don’t have it until they arrive at their first stop.

Or they know that roaming is horribly expensive outside certain cases like inside EEA for EEA contracts. And hunting for working wifi might be complicated as well.

Exactly. You have to be pretty technologically inclined and have done extensive research to determine how to get a data sim in a foreign country, and not get screwed by roaming costs.

Even I, an HN tech god, rely on McDonald’s Wi-Fi and the Here app, even when I do have data enabled, as it’s often painfully slow.

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