Why Japan has so many ‘never travelers’

A surprisingly large number of Japanese say that travel is no longer a priority for them.

A survey done last year by global intelligence company Morning Consult showed that 35% of Japanese respondents said they were unwilling to travel again, the highest number of any country. Tetsu Nakamura, a professor at Tamagawa University and a tourism behavior and psychology specialist, says the results are not at all surprising.

“In 2019, even before the pandemic, (Japanese) people who traveled abroad at least once a year made up about 10% of the population,” says Nakamura.

According a study Nakamura did back in 2016, there are what he calls “passivists,” those who say they want to travel abroad but won’t, and “denialists” people who show no interest in traveling abroad and won’t.

Together, these two groups comprise around 70% of respondents in his pre-pandemic study, with “denialists” comprising roughly 30% of them.

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