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Local governments across Japan are stepping up efforts to attract so-called “anime pilgrimage” tourists who visit the real-world locations depicted in animated works, as the practice is estimated to generate 470 billion yen (about 4.1 trillion won) in economic activity each year.
Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat estimated that 1.4 million foreign visitors traveled to Japan annually for anime pilgrimages, based on 2017 figures, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 15th. Their spending on merchandise alone reached 38 billion yen (about 331.5 billion won), and the expected total domestic consumption climbs to 470 billion yen when lodging, food and beverage spending are included.
This year marks a decade since the term “pilgrimage” entered the top 10 of Japan’s buzzwords of the year, following the box-office success of the 2016 animated film “Your Name.”
The roots of the pilgrimage culture date back to the 1990s. Before the current term took hold, fans of “Sailor Moon” began visiting filming locations, forming the practice’s prototype. Azabu Hikawa Shrine in Tokyo’s Minato Ward is cited as a leading example. It served as the model for the shrine where one of the main characters works as a shrine maiden, and its torii — the gate marking a shrine entrance — matches the one that appears in the series, establishing it as one of the earliest pilgrimage sites.
As the industry has grown, local governments have entered the competition to draw visitors. Gunma Prefecture provides up to 20 million yen (about 174 million won) per production to cover expenses such as lodging for animation production crews. Fukuoka also funds costs of up to 10 million yen (about 87 million won) per production. In the Washinomiya district of Kuki, Saitama Prefecture — the setting of “Lucky Star,” which aired in 2007 — a survey found about 3.1 billion yen in economic ripple effects and 316 new jobs over 10 years. The number of New Year worshippers at the area’s Washinomiya Shrine rose from 90,000 before the series aired to as many as 300,000 afterward.
Yuwaku Onsen in Kanazawa turned a fictional festival featured in the animated series “Hanasaku Iroha” into an actual annual event, drawing 15,000 people each year. Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, recorded 159,000 pilgrimage visitors in the year from April 2013 after its collaboration with “Girls und Panzer,” with direct economic effects tallied at 721 million yen a year.
Some cases have gone beyond tourism to relocation. Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, the setting of “Love Live! Sunshine!!,” has held relocation counseling sessions for fans to encourage them to settle there, and 10 people have moved to the city so far.
Side effects have followed. At a railroad crossing in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, known as a setting in the manga “Slam Dunk,” crowds of tourists have raised overtourism problems including trespassing.
Okamoto Takeshi, a professor of tourism at Kindai University, said it is important to build a virtuous cycle in which tourism revenue is reinvested in measures to address overtourism.
AloJapan.com