I'd imagine one of the largest reasons if not the largest would be the lack of vacation days, which the article doesn't even mention.
We have similar amounts of vacation than EU.
Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
41–50 of 136 posts
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#42Anecdotally 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.
Counterpoints on the last two: - South Korea - Thailand - Taiwan - Hawaii The CNN article does this too, but "traveling" doesn't just mean going to the US or EU. Japanese used to travel a lot to neighbour countries and that didn't cost that much, nor require much english skills. Now money is clearly a factor, but this would go deeper than travel and more into how many Japanese are giving up on many luxuries as they f…
Hawaii is far from Japan. Many many countries are closer to Japan than Hawaii
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#43I'd imagine one of the largest reasons if not the largest would be the lack of vacation days, which the article doesn't even mention.
Yes this is huge. Even taking a whole week off will basically require a public apology in most companies.
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#44Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#45Earlier 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…
The US is so huge that you literally cannot visit another country by land (save Canada, aka Diet US; or Mexico, aka California Sur) - and there are definitely regional variations but it’s all much more similar than even a couple hundred miles in Europe. A common school trip in the USA is visiting Washington, DC; for some that’s a six+ hour flight. The same flight in most places in Europe would put you in Asia or Afri…
Mexico is culturally completely different than the US and definitely counts as another country lol. Canada mostly doesn’t except for a few regional chains and such but Mexico is very much not diet California in any way
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#46I 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.
I don't think prices are much of a barrier for visiting e.g. Korea. A flight between HND and ICN appears to cost about $120.
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#47Most japanese have time to travel around the same three weeks a year: over new years, the golden week in early may or middle of August for the Obon holidays. Prices for everything travel related skyrocket around these three weeks. Work ethic being what it is, for most there is no other time to travel than in high season. In the current uncertain economic climate and weak yen this is even more unappealing than it was before.
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#48I 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.
The strong domestic tourism market is partly caused by the lack of international tourism.
Indeed even when people go overseas, the most preferred destinations are Guam and Hawaii, as they're seen as acceptably close and familiar destinations.
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#49It's interesting that views on travel vary so much. Even in the U.S., it seems there are "travelers" and "non-travelers". I have been wanting to go to Japan since before the pandemic, so I asked some friends and family members if they want to go too. "Nah, I'm fine looking at photos. Plus 12 hours is a long time to sit on a plane." Long time?! That process used to take months. We Americans sit in office chairs and in front of televisions for hours with no problem. I can understand financial or health reasons for not traveling (or having small children), but I've never understood the reluctance to sit in a chair for a mere half day or less in exchange for making it halfway around the world.
Re: Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’
#50Earlier 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…
The US is so huge that you literally cannot visit another country by land (save Canada, aka Diet US; or Mexico, aka California Sur) - and there are definitely regional variations but it’s all much more similar than even a couple hundred miles in Europe. A common school trip in the USA is visiting Washington, DC; for some that’s a six+ hour flight. The same flight in most places in Europe would put you in Asia or Afri…
I live Dallas area, Texas. The whole area is commonly referred to as "North Texas".
A common vacation is to drive to the mountains in Colorado, a state to the north west.
To even get out of Texas from my house is an 8 hour, 500 mile (800k km) drive. It is crazy how big the US is.