I was staying on the 36th floor of the Grove Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, outside the Toho Cinema, which had a giant replica of Godzilla that looked like it was going to swallow Harrison Ford in the heart of the Kabukicho entertainment district.
A billboard for the latest installment in the franchise, “Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Disk of Fate,” read: “Meet the final challenge that will change our destiny.”
In addition to thinking about how appropriate this claim is, given the pandemic challenges Japan’s travel industry has experienced, I’d also like to let you know that as a media franchise, “Godzilla” is much older than “Indiana Jones” .
The fictional monster made his debut in 1954 in Inoshiro Honda’s film as a prehistoric creature empowered by nuclear radiation, while Indiana Jones made his debut in 1981 in Raiders of the Lost Ark. (However, I must say that while Indy needs the help of AI and CGI to age him in the latest romp, Godzilla hardly looks any older!)
A Godzilla replica at Tokyo’s Toho Cinema looks ready to bite Indiana Jones.Image source: Yang Shaoxun
“Godzilla” is just one of many Japanese media series that has captured the imagination of the world. In fact, according to Tokyo-based economist Jesper Koll, who spoke at the Web in Travel WiT Japan and North Asia conference in July, among the 25 highest-grossing media franchises Of these, Japan has 10, including the top two: Pokemon and Hello Kitty.
In Asia, more kids know about Pokemon and Hello Kitty than Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, Cole said.
In fact, if you ask Scoot, Singapore Airlines’ low-cost carrier, how popular Pokémon is, they’ll tell you that their 10-year-anniversary Pikachu-inspired Pokemon is launching in 2022. The jets have made the airline a passenger darling. Generation Z and millennials in Asia. The plane, which is always the first to fill, has seen a strong recovery in Japan inbound traffic, the airline said.
Referring to Japan’s soft power, Cole said that despite the popular perception that Japan is an aging and declining power, the reality is far from the truth. In fact, he said, the new Japan that has emerged since the pandemic is “a first-class power, with wealthy companies and wealthy consumers, a new middle class, a lifestyle superpower and a bastion of policy stability.”
He shared these numbers from Credit Suisse’s 2020 Global Wealth Report:
Unlike many Western countries, Japan is not a “winner takes all” when it comes to household wealth: of its $26.9 trillion total wealth, 49.5% belong to the top 10% and 18.2% belong to the top 1%. In comparison, the total wealth of the United States is $126.3 trillion, of which 75.6% are in the top 10% and 35.3% are in the top 1%. In Japan, salarymen rule over superstar CEOs.
As for the aging and shrinking population, Kohl said Japan has a new middle class for the first time in 20 years, with the number rising from 32.8 million in June 2014 to 36.6 million in April this year.
Another unusual aspect of Japan is that there are “no superstars” when it comes to companies, he said.
Unlike the US, where the revenue share is dominated by a few top companies, Japan is a “red ocean of many companies”, which is why foreign companies find it so challenging to enter and penetrate the market.
His presentation was instructive as it made me see Japan with new eyes and made me more aware of the subtleties and nuances that make Japan such a fascinating destination for travelers. Maybe the time away from one of my favorite places on earth also gave me a new perspective on a familiar place.
Billboard in Kabukicho.Image source: Yang Shaoxun
change is brewing
On the surface, this return visit to Tokyo feels like nothing has changed, my first since 2019. I landed at Haneda Airport on Sunday night, and by the time I arrived in Kabukicho, it was past midnight, but the city’s most famous entertainment district was alive and well. It feels like an all-out frontal assault on the senses, returning to its center amidst the crowds, noise, convenience stores, and neon signs.
In the square, groups of Japanese kids hang out—listening to music, dancing, skateboarding, whatever keeps them entertained—while some security guards dutifully look on. Kabukicho is just as brightly lit as Times Square; just the imagery is different. Here, you’re more likely to see carefully retouched images of wide-eyed young girls and handsome boys smiling with dimples than news announcements and stock prices.
But change is brewing in this part of Tokyo.
Both Hotel Groove Shinjuku and Bellusstar Tokyo are housed in the Shin-Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, designed by renowned architect Yuko Nagayama, making it the city’s landmark The newest attraction, and more importantly, its development is part of a larger strategy to change the image of Tokyu Kabukicho. From a red-light district, the Kabukicho district has become more hip, artsy and eclectic.
‘The idea is to slowly change the image of the area so that corporate customers feel as at home here as leisure travelers,’ said Nick Nishikawa, the general manager of both hotels.
Hotel Groove Shinjuku, part of the Parkroyal Hotel, has an artsy vibe — its themed rooms double as art installations — and most of its guests are young and old Asian. The more upscale Bellustar Tokyo is aimed at the business traveler and conference market.
The staff who checked me in at the Grove were from China – a notable difference from this trip to Tokyo. I don’t know if it’s related to the epidemic, but this time I met more foreign service workers, such as Chinese Uber drivers, who decided to stay after graduation. One of them, from Shanghai, told me he was happy to be in Tokyo “because I can be away from my parents.” The kids are the same anywhere, really. I also met older Japanese taxi drivers who were more than happy to speak English with me.
Japan has struggled with diversity on every level—not just gender, but nationality. People always think that the culture is very monolithic and it is not easy for foreign talents to enter and stay in the labor market. It also faces the problem of fragmenting tourism beyond major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Before the outbreak, overtourism was a great regret in Kyoto.
Again, changes are brewing in these areas.
At WiT Japan & North Asia, we learned that Pasona Group, Japan’s leading executive recruiting firm, has taken the bold step of moving core functions from its Tokyo headquarters to remote Awaji Island in Hyogo prefecture near Kobe, relocating roughly 1,200 employees during the pandemic staff.
General manager Riho Kato said the idea was to force the workforce to diversify and bring more people to rural areas. “We have 100 employees from 30 to 40 countries working with us: from young to old, people with disabilities, artists from different cultures and backgrounds, athletes.”
Asked if there were challenges in recruiting talent in Awaji, Kato said: “Japan is Japan, and it doesn’t matter even if it’s a rural area. In fact, they sometimes prefer rural areas. We want to gather diverse talent, with many majors. People like retirement have a lot to contribute and can bring a different perspective to the hospitality industry.”
new concept of tourism
When I asked Eijiro Yamakita, head of the Japan Travel Agency, if he would consider moving the headquarters to a rural area, he said it was not impossible, which is strong evidence that the pandemic has indeed prompted new thinking for everyone, including the one with 111 year-old company.
Airbnb, which is also trying to play its part in the spread of tourism, has donated 150 million yen (about $1 million) to the Japan Old Folk House Association, which addresses the inheritance of original Japanese architecture by revamping old Japanese styles and local economic revitalization problem housing. The association plans to provide up to 5 million yen ($36,000) each to renovate 30 houses across the country that will eventually be listed as historic homes on the Airbnb platform.
Then there’s MGM Resorts, which, after waiting nearly a decade for approval, finally got the go-ahead to build a $10 billion integrated resort in Osaka. Speaking at WiT Japan & North Asia, MGM Japan chief Jiro Kawakami shared plans for the resort, which MGM expects to be most profitable when it opens in 2029.
“Most people think Las Vegas is a big gaming market, but it only has $8 billion in annual gaming revenue,” Kawakami said. “Macau’s economy is worth US$35 billion (before COVID). Japan is a huge market. It’s a strong destination with 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There’s so much to do outside of integrated resorts – if you look at what Marina Bay Sands in Singapore has achieved with such a small market and only one UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s unbelievable.”
So, in addition to two hotel towers with 2,500 rooms and approximately 140,000 square feet of meeting space and 215,000 square feet of exhibition space, a key feature of the resort will be a unique facility that will serve as a large tour concierge to Promote the development of tourism. Travel to other parts of Japan, including Kyoto, Nara and the greater Kansai area.
When asked to imagine what this tourist sending facility/concierge service would look like, Kawakami said: “I’m excited to see customers being able to use artificial intelligence to create personalized, customized tours so they don’t need to interact too much with humans. More contact. Maybe in many terminals, people can ask, “I want to eat unagi in Nara, and I want counter seats. ’ So in that regard, there’s an idea of putting more emphasis on AI-created content.”
To help Kawakami visualize the facility, we used the Mid-journey AI program to create an image using his text prompts. I guess you’d have to come back in six years to see if the AI got it right.
At the same time, I wouldn’t mind some artificial intelligence or computer generated imagery to age me down. Godzilla, I am not.
