Japan to partially lift ban on ride-hailing services from April – Nationwide

The Japanese government has decided to partially lift a ban on ride-hailing services to address a nationwide shortage of taxi drivers, with the changes to come into effect from April. The partial lifting will allow drivers with a standard license to offer taxi services using their own vehicle in areas and times when taxis are in short supply, on the condition they are under the management of a taxi company. A full lifting on a ban on ride-hailing services such as Uber that directly connects private car owners with individuals seeking transportation, is still under discussion, with a decision to be made by June next year.

Data from ride-hailing apps and radio taxis will identify areas and times with a shortage of taxis, with customers able to request rides through the apps. For safety, taxi companies will be liable for vehicle maintenance and transportation, with their eligibility to operate ride-hailing services subject to approval by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The government will consider flexible contracts in addition to standard employment contracts for drivers, with details to be finalized by the end of March. It also plans to significantly shorten the training period for a license to provide driver services from fiscal 2024, and make the exam available in 20 languages to encourage more foreign workers to become taxi drivers.

Character for tax (税) picked as kanji of 2023 – Nationwide

The kanji for tax (税), zei, was chosen as the single most representative character symbolic of the social mood in Japan this year, a Kyoto-based organization said. In Kyoto, chief Buddhist priest Seihan Mori of Kiyomizu temple drew the character with a giant calligraphy brush on washi, or Japanese paper, 1.5 meters high and 1.3 meters wide, at the famous location.

The selection for the 29th annual poll run by the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation is based on votes cast by the general public. The foundation received 147,878 answers. 税 had the highest number with 5,976. The second most popular kanji was 暑 (hot after Japan had a record hot summer), which got 5,571 votes. Third with 5,011 votes was 戦, war (which was No. 1 in 2022), followed by 虎 (tiger, referring to the Hanshin Tigers winning the Japan Series) with 4,674 and 勝 (win or victory) with 4,653 votes.

Foreign arrivals in Japan top 20 mil for Jan-Nov; highest since 2019 – Nationwide

The number of foreign visitor arrivals in Japan in 11 months from January totalled 22,332,000, topping 20 million in a calendar year for the first time since 2019, according to government data showed, a fresh sign of the tourism boom’s resurgence in the country following the coronavirus pandemic.

For November alone, the country recorded an estimated 2,440,800 foreign visitors, exceeding the 2 million mark for the sixth consecutive month, on the back of a significant increase in the number of travellers from Asia and North America amid a weak yen and resumption of airline services, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. The monthly figure recovered from a year earlier to a nearly identical level as November 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19, the data showed.

Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Ichiro Takahashi said it is possible to reach the target of 5 trillion yen in annual spending by foreign visitors “if the current pace continues in December.” The number of foreign visitors is on the pace to reach around 25 million by the end of the year. The government aims to surpass the highest annual figure recorded in 2019 — 31.88 million — in 2025. Major Japanese travel agency JTB Corp. predicted in a survey released Wednesday that visitor arrivals in the country would reach the highest-ever 33.1 million in 2024.

The most arrivals in the reporting month came from South Korea at 649,900, more than three times that of 2019, followed by Taiwan at 403,500, up 2.9 percent over the same period, China at 258,300, down 65.6 percent, and Hong Kong at 200,400, up 0.3 percent. Visitor arrivals from the United States rose 24.0 percent to 184,800 and those from Mexico jumped 52.4 percent to 9,900, according to the data. Visitors from Canada rose 17.1 percent to 39,000. The number of Japanese nationals traveling overseas in November stood at 1,027,100, 37.5 percent less than the same month in 2019.