More than 50 million people worldwide practice the nine Japanese martial arts, including karate and judo. The government is seeking to take advantage of the popularity of budo to lure more foreign tourists to Japan.

On Dec 8, Alex Mitrakis from Australia was among more than 10 karate and kobudo practitioners who were training to hone their skills at Shimbukan Dojo in Tomigusuku, Okinawa Prefecture. They were practicing bojutsu, a martial art in which combatants fight with staves.

He came to Japan in late November for a one-month stay to work on his karate and kobudo technique. Kobudo is an ancient martial art that involves the use of various traditional weapons and combat techniques. Bojutsu is one type of kobudo.

During his stay in Japan, Mitrakis spent six days a week practicing karate and kobudo. “I gain a lot by learning directly from a master in Okinawa,” he said. The prefecture is the home of karate and Okinawan kobudo.

Mitrakis has been practicing karate for more than 10 years, but he started pouring his heart and soul into martial arts after visiting Okinawa for intensive karate training in 2018. The trip was an eye-opener for Mitrakis, who learned not just karate techniques but also the philosophy underlying the martial art from a master. That experience transformed his thinking, he says. Back in Australia, Mitrakis began to practice karate and kobudo two to four times each a week.

His trip and training sessions were arranged by Ageshio Japan, a travel agency in Naha, the capital of Okinawa. Since its inception in 2017, Ageshio has specialised in karate-focused tours aimed at overseas travellers. It has partnerships with 20 to 30 famous karate dojo in the prefecture where people can learn martial arts.

Individual tourism has been recovering gradually from its post-pandemic low since October last year, according to the company. “The number of customers we serve has returned to levels close to those before the pandemic,” said Kenjiro Ueda, Ageshio’s president.

Although group tours have yet to bounce back, the company is already receiving requests to set up group tours for up to 100 participants, starting in February.

There are an estimated 360 karate dojo in Okinawa Prefecture, with many of the larger ones operating overseas branches. Before the pandemic, more than 6,000 foreign tourists came to the prefecture to experience karate.

Shimbukan Dojo has over 30 branches around the world. “I regularly teach visitors from overseas,” said Hiroshi Akamine, the head of the dojo.

The number of international tourists who visited Japan in October surged 140% from a year earlier to 490,000, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation. The relaxation of Covid border restrictions has triggered a rebound in overseas tourist traffic.

The popularity of budo among foreign tourists was highlighted by a 2018 Japan Sports Agency survey of people in the seven countries that were the largest sources of foreign tourists coming to Japan in 2018. The survey found that budo (not including professional sumo, which was covered separately) topped the list of sports visitors wanted to see in Japan in three countries and came in second in two.

These findings prompted the government to step up its efforts to promote budo tourism as a way to revitalise local economies by offering support for the production and dissemination of martial arts content.

On Dec 9, more than 20 foreign tourists enjoyed a ringside meal as they watched a sumo exhibition held at a restaurant in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward. Former professional sumo wrestlers stepped into the ring and demonstrated basic sumo moves like shiko. The moves were explained in English by an emcee.

At the end of the show, tourists had mock bouts with these former sumo wrestlers, much to the amusement of the spectators. A woman and her child visiting from Australia loved the show. “It is a bit challenging to watch real professional sumo bouts,” she said, but the show allowed them to enjoy the sport more casually.

The company behind the sumo exhibitions is Way in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward. Way has been offering sumo tours for foreign visitors featuring the restaurant exhibitions and visits to sumo stables to watch wrestlers train. “Demand for our services has been recovering since October, and the number of participants in our tours in December was around 50% of the pre-Covid numbers,” said Way President Aya Tanaka.

But there are still many challenges to building a viable business model using budo tourism to reinvigorate local economies. Miyazaki prefecture on the southwestern island of Kyushu has been working to attract overseas kendo practitioners by leveraging the popularity of Japanese fencing in the prefecture.

A promotional campaign led by Ryuzo Tada, a senior executive at Nippon Budo Miyazaki, a company based in the city of Miyazaki that manufactures, sells and exports kendo gear. Tada has been using the personal connections he has built teaching kendo in Europe for years to help attract foreign practitioners of the martial art to the prefecture. The French national kendo team is one group that answered the call.

“The challenge is whether we can build a sustainable system” to attract overseas tourists, Tada said. He is working to establish a long-term kendo tour promotional campaign, creating booking platform that allows local kendo dojo to share information about hosting foreign visitors.

Another key challenge is dealing with the constraints imposed by the pandemic. The Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, which is known for its competitive kendo and naginatajutsu clubs, has planned tours for foreign visitors featuring training sessions with the help of the Japan Sports Agency and other organisations.

The university has also created a website for booking tours. Since students training for tournaments are involved with the training for foreign tourists, said Junya Fujimoto, a senior executive at the university, tour promotion will have to wait for the end of the pandemic.

Japan topped the rankings of the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index for the first time when the latest listing was announced in May.

The government wants to bring 60 million overseas tourists to Japan by 2030, but the drive hit a snag when the pandemic struck. It will be hoping that the growing popularity of budo tourism gives its efforts an extra kick.