Japan is a popular spot for tourists, and a new initiative will make it easier – and more affordable – to visit than ever before. The Japan Airlines is offering free domestic flights to tourists from the US, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, according to a recent announcement on its website. It will also be available for tourists from Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Taiwan and mainland China.
To claim the free tickets, passengers must book round-trip international flights with the same airline and the domestic flights must be booked in the same reservation as the international flights.
A stopover fee of US$100 will be charged to travellers from the US, Canada, Mexico and China who plan to stay in their first destination for more than 24 hours. A spokesperson for Japan Airlines said that “no end date has been set” for the initiative. The new initiative means lesser-known cities and towns will become more accessible.
Grace Cheng, a travel blogger based in New York, previously said that tourists visiting Japan often make the mistake of only going to the capital, Tokyo, which does not fully represent how broad and versatile the culture is. “Tokyo is not Japan,” Cheng said. “And you need to explore the other cities to actually have a sense of what Japan is like.”
Cheng recommends visiting Sapporo in the Hokkaido prefecture in the north of Japan. She said it is often more affordable than the capital and has friendly locals. However, Tokyo has become increasingly popular in recent years. In 2023, the number of international visitors to the city reached a record high of 19.54 million, according to data tracking website Statista. The same year, the value of tourism expenditure by international visitors was around 5.31 trillion yen (US$37 billion), the website said.
