Tokyo has been ranked as the world’s best large city for the second consecutive year, solidifying Japan’s position as a global tourism powerhouse.
757,109 readers cast votes in this year’s survey for the Conde Nast Traveler’s 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards. In the award’s ranking of the top 10 large cities globally, which excludes U.S. cities, Kyoto placed second, followed by Cape Town, Singapore and Seoul.
“Receiving such high recognition two years in a row has once again made me keenly aware of Tokyo’s diverse appeal and its potential for further growth,” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said in a statement alongside the announcement.
“I am truly delighted that Tokyo’s many charms are being increasingly recognized by people across the globe.”
The magazine offers information on luxury travel, hotels and restaurants and other related topics. Its U.S. edition has a print circulation of approximately 720,000 and its site gets 5.4 million pageviews monthly, according to the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce.
The survey also picked out the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo, in the capital’s Otemachi district, as the best hotel in Japan and ranked it 14th globally.
Japan welcomed more than 36.8 million foreign visitors in 2024 according to the Japan National Tourism Organization, a record high driven by the weak yen and strong demand with the pandemic having subsided, especially from the U.S and countries in East Asia. August this year alone saw 3.42 million visitors come to Japan.
Koike pointed to the city’s mix of historical and contemporary culture — from gardens built during the Edo Period (1603-1867) and sushi restaurants to manga and anime — as key to its international standing.
“Tokyo is a rare city where tradition and innovation coexist, deepen one another and create new value,” Koike said. “We will continue to refine this appeal so that we can welcome even more visitors from Japan and abroad and help them create many wonderful memories.”
AloJapan.com