Japan Golden Week travel climbs 8.5%
- JTB said 572,000 Japanese are expected to travel overseas during Golden Week 2026, up 8.5% from a year earlier as bookings recover. - The agency put average overseas spending at a record ¥329,000 per traveler, while total Golden Week travel across Japan is forecast at 24.47 million. - Japan’s 2025 outbound travel still totaled just 14.73 million, versus 20.08 million in 2019. (japantoday.com)
Japan’s biggest travel agency says outbound Golden Week travel is rising again, with 572,000 Japanese expected to go overseas this holiday period. (jtbcorp.jp) (travelvoice.jp) JTB’s forecast covers April 25 to May 7, 2026, and pegs outbound travel at 108.5% of last year’s level, with average spending of ¥329,000 per person. (jtbcorp.jp) (ebx.sh) Total travel by Japanese residents, including domestic trips, is projected at 24.47 million people, up 1.9% year on year, with total travel spending of ¥1.2876 trillion. Domestic travel accounts for 23.9 million of those trips. (jtbcorp.jp) (travelvoice.jp) The calendar is helping. In 2026, May 2 through May 6 falls as a five-day block, and workers who take April 30, May 1, May 7 and May 8 off can stretch that into 12 days. (jtbcorp.jp) (nippon.com) JTB said overseas demand is being lifted by the recovery of international flight capacity to above pre-pandemic levels, with trips of three to five nights most common. Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia are among the most popular destinations. (jtbcorp.jp) South Korea has been actively chasing that demand. Its culture ministry said it is running a K-Tourism Roadshow in Osaka, Tokyo and Fukuoka through April 30 to capture Golden Week bookings from Japanese travelers. (en.sedaily.com) Japanese outbound travel is still not fully back. A Kyodo News analysis of government data said Japanese nationals made 14.73 million trips abroad in 2025, compared with a record 20.08 million in 2019. (japantoday.com) That gap helps explain the mixed picture in JTB’s survey. Travelers are taking more trips this Golden Week, but many are still trying to control costs: domestic travelers are skewing toward one-night stays, nearby destinations and private cars. (jtbcorp.jp) (nippon.com) For overseas travelers, the pattern is different: fewer people than before the pandemic, but higher spending per trip as the weak yen and higher prices push up the cost of going abroad. (jtbcorp.jp) (ebx.sh) Golden Week starts in earnest this week, and the early signal from JTB is that Japanese travelers are returning to foreign trips first through shorter, closer, and more expensive itineraries. (jtbcorp.jp)
