The Japanese government’s plan to ease visa restrictions for independent tourists and abolish the daily arrival cap by early October as well as the prospect of a nationwide travel discount program in the autumn are all welcome news for the country’s pandemic-stricken tourist hubs.
None more so than the city of Kyoto, where the financial shortfall due to the pandemic laid bare a number of long-standing fiscal problems, prompting the city’s mayor, Daisaku Kadokawa, to declare at the beginning of the year that there was “the prospect of bankruptcy within a decade.” Kadokawa’s statement was followed by the announcement of a major cost-cutting plan in June.
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