According to a report by the Kansai-based Asia-Pacific Research Institute (APIR), the Japanese tourism industry will be short of about 536,000 workers by 2030 if there are no timely remedies.
The current shortage of human resources has affected the operations of tourism companies. Masaru Takayama, chairman of Spirit of Japan Travel in Kyoto, said many businesses in the industry have been forced to cut staff during the pandemic.
As tourism recovers and develops strongly again, most of the previous workers have shifted to other industries, causing the tourism industry to lose human resources with experience and skills.
Takayama said the problem became more serious in rural areas, where the number of tourists increased but there was a shortage of service staff. This could affect service quality and the image of omotenashi - the traditional hospitality spirit of Japan.
With the current growth rate of the tourism industry, many experts say that Japan may have to find ways to attract foreign workers to solve the shortage of human resources if it wants to maintain its development goals by 2030.
