Going to art galleries is hard to be a top priority for Chinese visitors to Japan.
April 20th 2010 | Ryo Kubota
Modernism is a theme for Impressionists, like Edouard Manet, whose works are currently shown in an art gallery in Tokyo. Were they alive today, however, they would have been surprised to see Chinese people enjoying their works in the city. Will more Chinese visit art exhibitions in Japan?
This phenomenon is associated with wealth. With China becoming richer and richer, two shifts happening in the country are being felt to Japan. The first is that China is a volatile art market. According to a report from The Economist[*], Chinese wealthy people are bringing home its works of art, which were possessed by European or American art collectors. This may help explain their appetite for art.
The second is a number of Chinese visitors to Japan have almost remained increasing for a decade. According to the Ministry of Justice and Japan National Tourist Organization, over 121 thousand Chinese people visited Japan in February 2010, which recovered from the previous month by 25%[†]. Japan regards them as a key to sustain its development of tourism industry. Rich Chinese people desiring to travel abroad match with the Japanese wish. The Chinese ambassador to Japan seems to recognise that Chinese tourists play a big role in the Japanese economy.
Yet Japan’s own problems may prevent it from attracting wealthy foreign visitors keen on art shows. The main trouble seems to lie in a shortage of licensed guide who have good knowledge on wide range of culture from art to traditional Japanese culture. That may be partly resulted from its dodgy business culture, which illegally allows tour conductors to guide.
To make matter worse, concierges are not widely recognised in Japan. This makes difficult to make connections with those abroad. To wealthy people and their concierges in advanced countries Japan’s brand looks unclear. Not only does it lack available information but the promotion of authenticity of its culture. As a result, Japan lags behind in the luxury travel market[‡]. The Japan Tourism Agency looks frustrated with these problems[§].
Travellers from China may reflect Japan’s setbacks. As a trip to Japan is still expensive, it is affluent Chinese people that afford it. According to China’s government-run news agency Xinhua, their tastes are shifting from a kind of sight-seeing tourism to that of deep culture tour[**]. But most of the Chinese tourists like to go shopping in Tokyo, where they spend thousands of money buying lots of luxury items.
That suggests Japan is a destination for many Chinese tourists in the pursuit of not so much high culture but pleasures of shopping. According to The Art Newspaper,[††] Japan had two exhibitions in Tokyo and Nara that had more visitors than any other shows abroad between 2006 and 2008. But big museums in Tokyo rank far behind the Louvre Museum in Paris or the British Museum in London in terms of museum attendance in 2008. Although two European cities attract far more international visitors yearly than Tokyo, that difference questions the position of art galleries in Japan’s tourism strategy.
Some signs that Japan tries to solve the problems can be seen in the sphere of communication skills. The development of voice-activated translator through mobile phones is designed to break down a language barrier.[‡‡] Students in the international tourism course in Japan College of Foreign Language, which trains tour conductors, can take a class of Chinese.
But whether Japan’s tourism industry will make most of art exhibitions remains to be seen. History shows Japan’s appetite for collections of famous paintings disappeared in the 1980s and China takes over today, accumulating lots of them at home. So going to art galleries is hard to be a top priority for many Chinese visitors to Japan. This is not mercy to it.â–
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[*] The Economist ‘A special report on the art market’ (November 26th 2009)
[†] Japan tourism marketing Co. ‘Statistics of Visitors to Japan from Overseas’
http://www.tourism.jp/english/statistics/inbound.php
[‡] The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport ‘A report on luxury travel market in Japan’ (July 2007) http://www.mlit.go.jp/kisha/kisha07/01/010712/01.pdf
[§] The Japan Tourism Agency ‘A report on conference to discuss licensed guides’
http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/shisaku/jinzai/pdf/conference04_9.pdf
[**] Embassy of The People’s republic of China in Japan
http://www.china-embassy.or.jp/jpn/whjl/t661764.htm
[††] The Art Newspaper ‘Japanese treasures draw astounding crowds in Nara and Tokyo’ (March 31 2009)
[‡‡] Japan Tourism Marketing Co. ‘Voice-Activated Translator: Communication Technology Helps International Visitors to Overcome Language Barriers’ (March 2009)
http://www.tourism.jp/english/report/2009/03/06/mar-01.php