In the age of mass tourism, what does it mean to be overlooked? Japan is breaking records in inbound tourism, yet Shimane Prefecture — home to some of the country’s most profound cultural assets — recorded just 87,000 foreign guest nights in 2024. The gap between Tokyo and Shimane is more than numerical; it reflects a deeper divide in visibility, infrastructure, and narrative power. As rural Japan faces demographic decline, Shimane is quietly rewriting its future — not by chasing numbers, but by reclaiming meaning.
Japan welcomed an estimated 36.9 million foreign visitors in 2024 — a 47.1% increase from the previous year and far surpassing the pre-pandemic high of 31.9 million in 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). Yet Shimane Prefecture remained at the bottom of the rankings, recording only 87,000 foreign guest nights in 2024 — a mere 0.07% of the national total of 117.22 million. By contrast, Tokyo topped the list with more than 27 million guest nights, highlighting a gap of over 300 times that of the least visited prefecture.
Shimane lies on the Sea of Japan coast in western Honshu, bordered by Tottori, Hiroshima, and Yamaguchi prefectures. Despite its rich cultural heritage, the region remains relatively remote: flights from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to Izumo take about 90 minutes, while rail journeys via Okayama on the Sanyo Shinkansen and Yakumo express train take more than six hours. Buses from Osaka to Matsue or Izumo require around four to five hours, underscoring the prefecture’s challenges in accessibility.
Shimane is best known for Izumo Taisha, one of Japan’s most famous Shinto shrines, and the Oki Islands, recognised as a UNESCO Global Geopark and noted for preserving ancient ecosystems where continental and Japanese species coexist. The prefecture is also home to Matsue, the City of Water, introduced to the West in the 19th century by writer Lafcadio Hearn, and the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, which flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and at its peak supplied about one-third of the world’s silver, today a UNESCO World Heritage site. Yet despite such cultural assets, the prefecture has long struggled to attract international travellers.
Although Shimane’s figures are slightly higher than the pre-pandemic level of 73,000 in 2019, the growth is modest compared with Japan’s sharp nationwide rebound.
To confront this challenge, the prefecture hosted the Shimane Tourism Summit on 3rd September. The event sought to raise Shimane’s profile in the inbound market, nurture tourism professionals, provide business leaders and frontline staff with the latest industry insights, and strengthen networks among stakeholders.
In a keynote speech, regional revitalisation experts Hitoshi Kinoshita, a long-time consultant on rural policy, and Hidesato Naito, a noted adviser on regional economies, painted a sobering picture of Japan’s demographic future, noting that the nation is expected to lose around ten million people per decade. In such an environment, they warned, rural regions like Shimane risk sliding into dependence on foreign capital and becoming tourism colonies if they chase short-term gains. Instead, they urged the prefecture to chart a different course: to harness its own resources by strengthening the role of local banks, restaurants, and accommodation providers, and to pursue a long-term vision of development akin to the small but resilient towns of Europe, rather than imitating the growth model of Tokyo or Osaka.
At a breakout session, Daichi Natsukawado, secretary-general of the Ama Town Tourism Association, reported that inns once catered mainly to public works visitors for around JPY 5,000 a night. Today, Hotel Entô — offering 36 oceanfront rooms across its main building and Annex NEST — charges JPY 15,000 per night, with total lodging revenue expected to reach JPY 400 million. Ama Town itself, once on the brink of fiscal collapse, has become widely recognised as a model of rural revival, attracting over 100 newcomers from across Japan each year.
Meanwhile, Sameera Gunawardena of inbound operator TAVIKALA, based in Okuizumo and Unnan — an area long regarded as the heartland of Japan’s traditional tatara iron-making, a centuries-old method of smelting iron sand, is deeply rooted in Japanese mythology and craftsmanship, and remains a living tradition in the area — emphasised the need for targeted messaging and effective storytelling to appeal to repeat visitors beyond the well-trodden Golden Route. This year, more than 100 foreign visitors from Europe and the Middle East are expected to visit the region, highlighting its growing appeal outside Asia.
Beyond the summit, the prefectural government has stepped up concrete initiatives. These include multilingual signage at tourist sites and transport hubs, training programmes for tourism professionals, and digital marketing through social media and cross-border e-commerce. With a focus on Taiwan and Hong Kong, Shimane is also collaborating with overseas travel agencies.
Izumo Airport has also become a central part of Shimane’s inbound strategy. The city of Izumo offers subsidies of up to JPY 3,000 per person per night (JPY 2,000 for international flights) to groups of ten or more arriving via the airport. In addition, the prefecture has positioned the promotion of Izumo Airport services as a key tourism strategy, working with municipalities and airlines to strengthen its role as a regional gateway.
Infrastructure on the ground is also improving. Road access is being enhanced through the extension of the San’in Expressway, which will link Shimane more directly with Hiroshima and the Kansai region. Shimane has also experimented with aggressive bus subsidies. A major campaign linking Hiroshima with Izumo, Hamada, Masuda, and Oda offered one-way fares of JPY 1,000 until March 2024, while a new Hiroshima–Matsue program remains in place through March 2026. Izumo City continues to provide JPY 1,000 fares for foreign visitors, though no end date has been set.
Shimane remains at the bottom of the national rankings. Still, its stakeholders hope that these initiatives, combined with long-term infrastructure improvements, will help the prefecture establish a more substantial presence in Japan’s booming inbound tourism market. For a region where myth and memory are inseparable — from Izumo Taisha’s divine gatherings to the Oki Islands’ ancient ecosystems and the silver veins of Iwami Ginzan — the task is not simply to increase numbers but to ensure that its timeless stories resonate far beyond its shores.
In Shimane, gods gather not only in temples, but also in the quiet persistence of local inns, in the salt-laced wind of the Oki Islands, and in the silver veins that once shaped global trade. This is not a place that performs for visitors — it remembers, it listens, it endures.
— Words by Takashi Saito