Slow recovery continues for Japanese outbound air travel

Although Japan's pandemic-era entry restrictions have been dismantled, the lingering reluctance of Japanese travellers to fly overseas remains a significant obstacle to airline demand recovery.

Japanese outbound leisure travel was one of the most important Asia-Pacific traffic flows before 2020. This makes it a major concern to many airlines based in Japan and elsewhere that demand out of Japan is still sluggish.

In many other countries international travel surged as soon as border restrictions were lifted.

Inbound tourism to Japan has followed this trend, but it has not occurred with outbound travel to anywhere near the same degree.

There is hope on the horizon, however, as some airline executives involved in this market are starting to see positive signs of improvement for upcoming peak travel periods.