TOKYO -- Custom-made samurai swords have become a weapon of choice for bringing big-spending travelers to one of Japan's less-traveled areas.At the end of June, Tokyo-based luxury travel company Japanticket started offering a two-day, 6.5 million yen ($40,000) experience with a swordsmith in Gifu prefecture in central Japan.Making a traditional Japanese sword is a monthlong process. After a visitor leaves, Japanticket provides regular online updates on the progress of the sword until the finished weapon is mailed to the customer.Japanticket has already received inquiries from the U.S. and other countries for the package, which accepts only 10 groups a year.Elsewhere, Japanticket offers a four-day, three-night tour of the northern island of Hokkaido by private jet. That package costs about 1.88 million yen per person.Hokkaido Airports, which operates seven airports in Japan's northernmost prefecture, has been in the red for years."By using private jets, we hope to attract tourists to regional areas and also improve the utilization rate of unprofitable airports," a Japanticket representative said.In 2023, travelers to Japan that spent at least 1 million per person made up about 2% of the total, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. But they accounted for nearly 20% of the total spending by inbound tourists.https://archive.ph/DkVSp#selection-2827.0-2889.168https://asia.nikkei.com/business/travel-leisure/rural-japan-tries-to-draw-wealthy-tourists-with-40-000-custom-swords
The market for luxury travel in Japan is projected reach $85 million by 2034, according to the Tokyo-based Market Research Center, more than double its 2025 size."Luxury travelers are seeking unique, extraordinary experiences that are only possible in Japan," said a JNTO representative.Drawing such visitors to rural areas will be essential to translate tourist spending into economic growth. The majority of international tourists still go to metropolitan areas, while the number of travelers visiting the countryside is extremely small, according to the Japan Tourism Agency.But challenges remain. Rising material costs and labor shortages are causing delays in developing infrastructure to accommodate high-end travelers in rural areas. For example, a Marriott International luxury hotel that was scheduled to open in 2026 near the Tottori Sand Dunes in western Japan is not yet under construction.Japan's government aims to increase spending by foreign visitors to 15 trillion yen by 2030, up 60% from 2025. JNTO data released Wednesday showed spending in the second quarter this year stood at 2.5 trillion yen, edging up 0.2% on the year. Per-person spending rose 3.3% to 244,457 yen, a new quarterly record.Foreign visitors from January to June decreased 2% on the year to 21,084,800. The decline reflects the lingering effect of a diplomatic dispute between China and Japan.
Shinsakuto are already a rip off at like 8 grand usd. Here's your tl;dr history lesson>be Tokugawa Shogunate>strict hierarchical sumptuary laws>entire culture evolves around paying for masterwork crafts to flex on your neighbors without being beheaded for wearing the wrong silk or displaying the wrong color metal in public>artisanal labor becomes ludicrously overvalued as a means to inflate pieces costs without running afoul of the sumptuary laws>Can't legally own a gold cup because you have the wrong family name? Why not own a copper cup signed by a master craftsman, with clear evidence that it's been hammered on for a month, and drink out of that>now you're the big swinging dick and no one can cut your head off for being uppity!400 years later and all artisanal labor in Japan is woefully overpriced owing to that history and modern money laundering where works of art are immune to Japan's estate tax among other things. You're a lot better off if you just want a Japanese sword buying Shinshinto that's already been pirated out of Japan so you don't have to play their stupid feudal class game.
>>65334512>country with culture centered around differentiating between outsiders of the island is now asking outsiders to come spend their money on their islandyeah, pass.
>>65334512Wish they built guns instead I want a cool handgun made by the descendants of samurai, they'd sell like sushi
>>65334512That's cool.Nice to see ways to keep traditional practices alive and economically profitable. Especially in a country with a hard on for that autistic shit.I'd honestly consider buying an authentically and traditionally forged sword like that if I had the money.Not from this two-day trip thing, way too expensive, but there's a certain soul that comes with things that have centuries of legacy and specificity like this that I couldn't make myself.>>65335853>Own a Matchlock for home defense, since that's what the Daimyo intended.>Four Koreans break into my house.>"Nande korewa?" as I grab my O-Yoroi and Do-maru.>Blow a koma sized hole through the first peasant, he's dead on the spot.>Draw my matchlock pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's a filthy weapon from a filthy place, and nail the neighboring Dojo's Tengu mystic.>Have to resort to the bombard behind the paper wall loaded with grapeshot. "Banzai">The shrapnel shreds two men and a cone of my house in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel setting off car alarms.>Draw my Katana and charge the last terrified warrior. He bleeds out waiting for the police to arrive because wounds from a razor sharp blade made of steel folded a million times are impossible to close.>Just as the Daimyo intended.
>>65334512>online updatesOk so like this could be cool if I got to sit in the building and watch or participate in it like when the guy from Avatar made his meteorite sword but what's the point of just getting online updates? Like I could just pay some dude to text me about how hard it is to make a sword and then just buy the cheapest katana off of a website and pretend like it was my specially crafted sword
>>65334512Sounds like a scam. Don't forget that Japan started importing jeets, indogs and other abhumans recently.
