The Central Cooperative Bank for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (the Norinchukin Bank), Nokyo Tourist Corporation and two non-agricultural companies have launched a joint program to bring more inbound travelers to rural areas in Japan.
Travelers enjoying cooking using local ingredients (in Masaki town, Ehime Prefecture, photo by the Norinchukin Bank)
The plan says some overseas travelers are offered monitor tours in rural areas in Japan to be filmed in short videos that show how they enjoyed the trips in Japan. The video clips are then provided to approximately 100 tour companies mainly in Asia to help them include those areas as new destinations in their Japan tours.
The first video footage will cover the tour in Hiroshima and Ehime Prefectures of nine female travelers from Taiwan from April 18 to 22.
The party visited a pear grower and a winery in Sera, Hiroshima Prefecture. At the Sera Winery, they tasted a wine made of local grapes. They also enjoyed cooking rice cakes using Kiyomi, a Japanese citrus fruit, in Masaki town, Ehime Prefecture. The tour also included a visit at a farmers’ market on April 22.