Japan is accelerating its focus on India as a pivotal source of tourism growth after experiencing an unprecedented rise in Indian visitors throughout 2024. This surge is attributed to enhanced flight connectivity, more streamlined visa procedures, and a favorable exchange rate driven by the depreciation of the yen against the Indian rupee.

Indian travelers, encompassing both leisure tourists and business visitors, are expected to continue increasing in number throughout 2025. This growth trajectory is bolstered by strategic promotion campaigns from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the addition of new direct flights, and strengthened code-sharing agreements between Japanese and Indian airlines.

In 2024, Japan recorded approximately two hundred thirty-three thousand arrivals from India, a striking increase of forty percent compared to the previous year. This uptrend was supported by expanded air routes, including five weekly flights between Bengaluru and Tokyo’s Haneda and Narita airports, as well as daily services connecting Haneda and Delhi, thereby improving accessibility for travelers.

The growth of code-sharing agreements has played a crucial role in expanding Japan’s accessibility throughout India’s extensive domestic air travel network. Beginning in late 2024, Japan Airlines (JAL) partnered with IndiGo on a codeshare arrangement that covers eighteen domestic Indian routes, facilitating smoother connections to JAL’s international flights departing from Delhi and Bengaluru. In a similar move, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Air India strengthened their codeshare partnership in early 2025, adding seven more domestic routes within India and six additional domestic routes in Japan, including key airports such as Osaka (Itami), Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Okinawa, and Hokkaido. These partnerships provide travelers with increased convenience and more efficient travel options across both countries.

JNTO’s marketing efforts in India concentrate on attracting experiential travelers, particularly families and couples aged late twenties to forties with a disposable income exceeding four million yen (roughly twenty-seven thousand five hundred US dollars). The campaigns highlight Japan’s unique cultural heritage, breathtaking natural scenery, and captivating traditional and contemporary arts.

While JNTO offers digital tools to assist Indian tourists in planning their journeys, challenges persist in meeting culinary preferences once visitors arrive in Japan. Although Indian cuisine has gained visibility in major cities, authentic regional dishes and vegetarian options remain scarce, limiting the overall dining experience for many Indian visitors.

For business travelers and corporate groups, familiar and genuine Indian cuisine is often a crucial element of a comfortable stay. Although Indian restaurants operate in metropolitan areas such as Tokyo and Osaka, similar dining options are less accessible in hotels, convention centers, and incentive travel settings. Moreover, outside these large urban centers, options catering to strict vegetarian diets or religious food requirements, including those of Jain communities, are notably limited.

Some Indian-Japanese fusion restaurants have noted increased patronage from Indian visitors, benefiting from their ability to host larger groups. Nonetheless, the broader shortage of authentic Indian food options poses a challenge in fully tapping into India’s outbound tourism potential.

To better accommodate Indian travelers, Japan could enhance partnerships with Indian restaurants for event catering, employ Indian culinary professionals within international hotel chains, and provide targeted hospitality training focused on Indian culinary traditions and traveler expectations. These steps would improve visitor satisfaction and foster stronger engagement with the Indian market.

Closing the gaps in food options and cultural amenities is crucial for Japan to capture a larger share of one of the fastest-growing outbound tourism markets globally. Forecasts from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry anticipate that India’s outbound travel sector will expand to a valuation of fifty-five point four billion US dollars by 2034, underscoring substantial opportunities for growth.

With ongoing investments in flight connectivity, tailored promotional strategies, and hospitality services designed to meet Indian visitors’ needs, Japan is positioned to strengthen its role as a favored destination for Indian tourists and business travelers. These efforts are expected to deepen bilateral tourism links and sustain the upward trend in Indian visitor arrivals for years to come.

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