Cancellation of trips may reach as much as 50 percent to the end of March, said Isao Matsuhashi, president of JTB. Still "we hope for a recovery from the new year," he said, speaking at an international conference in Tokyo Wednesday hosted by the Japan Association of Travel Agents. Euroguide's Papas also attended the travel conference to drum up business.
US carriers are also cutting flights. Delta Air Lines Inc, the third-largest US carrier, is flying to Narita seven times a week compared with 27 before October.
Northwest Airlines Corp, the biggest foreign carrier in Japan, last month halted four flights a week through Narita, while UAL Corp's United Airlines has trimmed two flights a week from Tokyo leaving it with 14.
The reluctance of Japanese to travel is hurting the economies of Singapore, Australia and other Asia Pacific countries that rely on tourism as a growth generator.
In Singapore, tourism authorities said the number of Japanese visitors last month fell 51 percent, compared with an overall decline of 11 percent. Arrivals from the US were down 41 percent, while those from China gained 21 percent.
Australian tally falls
Australia reported a 25 percent fall in visitors from Japan for the month, its lowest tally in 2 1/2 years, according to the Australian government. Visitors from the UK fell 5 percent.
Visitors from Japan "are terribly important to Australia, because they are effectively our largest market outside of New Zealand," said Peter Shelley, managing director of the Australian Tourism Export Council. "Our discussions with the Japanese wholesalers indicate it is still a very soft market going forward into the first quarter of next year," Shelley said.
Those that do come are bringing less cash, said Jessica Li, who sells opals at Tiara Jewelry, in the shadows of the Sydney Opera House. Average purchases of opals and other trinkets is now less than A$200 (US$100), down from A$1,000, she said.
"`Before, young people only bought cheap things and older people bought more expensive things," Li said. "But now, both of them are buying cheaper things."
Air New Zealand Ltd will cut fares to encourage Japanese tourists to fly after New Zealand Tourism Minister Mark Burton said 21,000 fewer Japanese than expected will visit during the next four months. The government has agreed to spend an extra NZ$2 million (US$825,000) on marketing in Japan.
Jalpak's Shinmachi blames his compatriots' relative reluctance to travel on group conformity. "It's not a matter of price, it's the psychology," he said.
"Do like your neighbor does is still quite prevalent" in Japan, Haruo Shimada, a Keio University professor and an economic adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, told the international gathering in Tokyo. For the same reason any recovery should be rapid, he said.
Others share the hope of a mass turnaround.
"Japanese travelers just need time," said Hiroshi Sawabe, Asia Pacific director of public relations for the Los Angeles convention center and visitors bureau in Tokyo. ``Once the newspapers start devoting more time to [Prime Minister Koizumi's] budget cutbacks and less to the war in Afghanistan, they'll start flooding back.''
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