Japan changes tourism strategy

In this year's draft tourism white paper, Japan encourages its tourism industry to get rid of its dependence on East Asian countries, and focus instead on attracting more visitors from South-east Asia.

The move follows a fall in East Asian arrivals, such as Chinese and South Korean, to Japan. 

In 2012, visitors from the two countries accounted for two thirds of total visitors. But because of the Diaoyu Islands dispute between China and Japan, the quantity of Chinese tourists dropped sharply last year, by nearly 40 percent year on year.

Japan plans to ease the visa procedure for South-east Asian countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.