Will 10,000 free flights really fix Japan?

For the past few days, I have been thinking about the proposal by the Japan National Tourism Office (JNTO) about the "10,000 free flights" program. While I feel that the funding for this program could be better spent on rebuilding infrastructure in Tohoku, I would warn the JNTO to be careful on the groups of people who are selected in this program. There are many of us who have been speaking about and writing on Japan for many years through our own channels of communications. I surely hope that people like us are given the first consideration. Myself, I would like to go to visit Miyagi-ken Sendai-city area to see first hand how the renewal effort is going.

With that, I am not sure how much this program is going to improve the overall economy. While Japan is pouring money into tourism as well as the so-called passport control improvements (which based on my last trip to Japan, are not really necessary), Japan could be stimulating the economy through foreign commerce in better ways.

First of all, Japan needs to open its creative markets to the world. The content providers have too much control over how their product is seen around the world. Japanese popular culture such as music and anime is very popular outside of Japan yet some major record labels impose geographic restrictions on content. There is a market for JPOP outside of Japan, J1 Radio has proved that for the past 10 years.

Japan also needs to ease e-commerce restrictions. Even though I have a Visa card, I am sometimes required to have a card issued on a Japanese bank in order to purchase merchandise. This has created a whole new industry of "shopping services" such as Tenso who purchase for you from Japanese websites and retailers and then ship the product to you. The requirements that a Japanese bank account is required to do any kind of business that relates to Japan is hampering our efforts to fully reach out to the Japanese market.

I have not even spoken of the current state of the Yen. When I came to Tokyo, I was interviewed in English by an NTV camera crew and they asked me why I came to Japan despite the value of the US Dollar against the Yen. I talk about this interview in my blog:
http://ameblo.jp/michi--chan/entry-11012228961.html

It is one thing to require all of your employees to speak English in order to prepare for a world market but when companies such as Rakuten/LinkShare require me to have a Japanese bank account to run advertising on my Japanese language websites, Japan continues to keep many doors closed to the world.

I am not sure how giving away 10,000 flights will fix this but I believe in Japan and the drive of its people. If JNTO offers me a free flight, I will accept the offer and continue to support Japan through my channels of communication.