Japan Airlines Offering Free Domestic Tickets To Foreigners

Definitely slightly odd given that the terms and conditions don't mention that you need to have travelled to Japan on JAL, which would have made more sense in my opinion.

Maybe they want to divert some tourists away from Tokyo and Osaka

The tickets will be on a first come first served basis. And one goal is to help prevent regular tourists avoiding Japan due to the Olympics and shortage of accommodations in Tokyo and Osaka. It's not just foreigners taking up the accommodations in Tokyo - there will be a lot of domestic visitors as well as volunteer staff as well. For example, when the Olympics were held in London, a lot English from outside London attended.

My (pessimistic) guess is that these flight are bound to cities/regions that are not expected to have too many tourists from overseas, even during the Olympics. It is very possible this is partially funded by the government to introduce overseas visitor to areas new to them (i. e. places that are not promoted by "influencers" ad nauseum).

It may also be to encourage imternational visitors to travel off the beaten places thereby preventing the crowd from major tourist destinations like Kyoto and Mt. Fuji. A lot of under visited areas are heavily promoting tourism and I wouldn't be surprised there is some government subsidy in a promotion like this.

Pretty dumb to travel to Japan during the Olympics with hotels rooms rates going through the roof! Did I mention the heat and humidity?

I doubt this will be a busy travel period since anyone with any sense will stay clear of any city/countty hosting an event like the Olympics. Hotel and other prices will be sky high in Tokyo and surrounding spots, but it will keep people from overseas away from the rest of the country. So this is an ideal way of keeping the domestic tourism going while the Olympics destroy what would otherwise have been a major up period for foreigners to visit Japan.

Nice, my wife is from Japan and now we live outside of Japan so I'll try to snag a few tickets. Thank you!

Oh no no this isn't Japan Airlines' doing. This was probably sponsored by the Japan government as they wanted to lead tourists away from Tokyo during the Olympics due to the accommodation shortage!

well its better then having to go on a japanese game show to win the tickets. JAL can make up any rules it wants for the tickets. they own the tickets and are giving them away

It definitely does sound odd, but I think I have to agree with the reasoning that it's a contest to get people away from Honshu during the Olympics.
If you're already in Japan during the time period, scoring a free ticket to a place like Kyushu or Hokkaido would be pretty nice.

"it just doesn’t seem ideal for what will be an extremely busy period." - They are working with the Japan Tourism Agency, the Japan National Tourism Organization and Nomura Research Institute Ltd. The whole idea is to get some of these tourists to go to rural parts of Japan instead of just places like Tokyo or Kyoto. Those tourists go to those places and spend money and then go home and tell their friends about those places and maybe more people visit rural areas of Japan. The whole it being an extremely busy period thing kinda misses the point. They aren't sending people to places where there is high demand. They are sending people to places where they likely would never have gone otherwise, so no those places would not be extremely busy. The reality is most foreign tourists who go to Japan follow the same exact tourist track as every other tourists and miss a large portion of the country that the tourism industry is trying to develop.

I will tell my brother about this as he is planning to visit us in Tokyo for the Olympics - no hotel needed - but was also planning g to travel outside Tokyo while he’s here. Thanks for the tip!

I agree with others that it is to draw people to other parts of the country. There is an article in the Nikkei Asian Review today about the jump in flights between regional cities, but the numbers are still very low in absolute terms. The train system still takes the lion’s share of intercity travel.

I don't quite get the logic.
Surely if you're going to Tokyo/Osaka at this time already it's because of the Olympics?
And therefore even if you get a 'free' domestic flight, this shouldn't tempt anybody without an Olympics ticket to fly to Tokyo/Osaka on what is presumably a busy and therefore expensive flight to take advantage of this offer.
What is the target segment exactly? Perhaps those with a two-week itinerary in Tokyo but with only one or two Olympics tickets being persuaded to spend a few days outside the city, I guess...

Japan does a lot of programs like this. I participated in this cultural program called the Kakehashi Project which flew me all expenses paid in college from Honolulu to Tokyo to attend sessions with the ministry of foreign affairs. From there, they funneled us to a rural ski village in Nagano prefecture (again, all expenses paid — even cash for spending money). We finished up by presenting our findings on the differences between Japanese and US Culture which was cool since I presented in English and Japanese through an interpreter. Bottom line this was easily a 5000-6000 trip with the kinds of meals and activities they paid for us to do. I’m sure it’s government subsidized.

program finished (12/22/24)