Answer your friend who claims that Japan as an advanced country does not need (1) inbound tourism revenue (2) Japanese regional economies are not affected by the change in inbound tourist numbers (Table 1) (3) Japan has always more travel service debits than credits in percentage GDP (Table 2) (4) Japanese visits abroad against foreign arrivals in Japan always result in deficits in service balance in Japan (Table 3) and (5) for these reasons Japanese inbound tourism has not been affected largely by the coronavirus pandemic.

Table 1: 2017 Regional Distribution of Inbound Tourism Expenditure Table 2: Japanese Travel Service Credit Balance Table 3: Japanese Goods and Service Balance (Trillion Yens) Kanto Debit Credit Goods Service/ Service Service/ Transport Travel Other 41% Travel Credit to GDP Ratio (%) 30 % 2006 2010 22% 2014 2018 Kinki Hokkaido Others 7% 0.60 0.48 0.40 0.40 0.2 0.24 0.4 0.85 2009 2012 2015 2018 5 -5 -0.5 1.2 -0.2 -0.3 -0.2 -0.3 -2 -0.7 0.5 2.5 -0.8 -2 -2.4 -2.7 Table 1: 2017 Regional Distribution of Inbound Tourism Expenditure Table 2: Japanese Travel Service Credit Balance Table 3: Japanese Goods and Service Balance (Trillion Yens) Kanto Debit Credit Goods Service/ Service Service/ Transport Travel Other 41% Travel Credit to GDP Ratio (%) 30 % 2006 2010 22% 2014 2018 Kinki Hokkaido Others 7% 0.60 0.48 0.40 0.40 0.2 0.24 0.4 0.85 2009 2012 2015 2018 5 -5 -0.5 1.2 -0.2 -0.3 -0.2 -0.3 -2 -0.7 0.5 2.5 -0.8 -2 -2.4 -2.7