Sights unseen by tourists in Japan

Japan is battling a lack of public awareness as it launches an ambitious plan to boost foreign tourism in the run-up to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. A recent report found that four of Japan’s major historical regions — Nara, Kamakura, Nikko and Ise Shrine — are almost unknown among westerners. Kamakura is home to the Great Buddha monumental bronze statue but is known to only nine per cent of those surveyed, while attractions like the Todaiji Temple in Nara Prefecture registered with just seven per cent of the 3,000 western visitors to Japan polled by McKinsey & Co. “Many of the sites that Japan residents consider to be ‘major destinations’ are virtually unknown to foreign travellers,” the report said. The government of Shinzo Abe has set a target of 60 million foreign visitors annually by 2030, the Japan Times reported.