[November 07, 2016]

Launch of Japan's Largest Promotion for Inbound Tourism from Europe

As part of the "Visit Japan" project, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO, London Office) launched the promotion "Japan--Where tradition meets the future", a large-scale campaign targeting 15 European countries, on November 7, 2016

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161107005505/en/

Expressing the appealing contrast of traditional and modern Japan (Graphic: Business Wire)

The concept of the campaign is to fuse "tradition" and "innovation". Multiple survey results showed Japan is full of "tradition" and "innovation," and the way the two mix and coexist creates the attraction. Focusing on these consumer opinions, we selected two keywords - Japanese "identity" and "authenticity" - and produced coordinated creative content that brings out this attraction to the fullest. For this movie production, we invited German filmmaker Vincent Urban, producer of the movie "In Japan - 2015" that has been played over two million times. His new three-minute movie portrays the vivid scenes from 45 locations in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kumano and Ise through the eyes of a European traveller. The movie is shown on a special website (http://visitjapan-europe.jnto.go.jp/) in an interactive format that allows viewers to see detailed information by clicking a scene.

Starting on November 7, JNTO will place advertisements on several different media, including the Internet, television, transportation advertising, cinema advertising and more, to strongly convey the attraction of Japan.

About the promotion campaign for inbound tourism from Europe, "JAPAN?Where tradition meets the future"

• Target (News - Alert) markets
  15 European countries: Media and exposure differ depending on the market
  UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Poland, Israel, Turkey

• Movie contents
  From music games to high-speed rice cake pounding: 45 carefully selected scenes that show the contrasting charms of Japan.

The movie starts from landmarks representing modern Japan, such as Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Tower. These pictures are followed by the majestic nature of the Dorokyo gorge in Wakayama prefecture, the imposing appearance of the Great Buddha hall in the historic Todaiji temple in Nara prefecture, a video arcade in Akihabara, a robot from the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), the rites of people who are passing on traditions such as the tea ceremony or archery, and modern everyday life such as Don Quijote or Yokocho. Over a runtime of three minutes, bustle and noise is shown hand in hand with silence. The movie shows Japan from contrasting viewpoints of "tradition" and "innovation".

Moreover, the movie includes a large number of bird's eye view scenes captured by state-of-the-art drones. Picturesque scenery such as Hyakkengura (Kumano Kodo in Wakayama prefecture) or rafting in the Dorokyo gorge is captured from unusual angles that are normally impossible to see. Enjoy pictures that concentrate all of Japan's multifaceted attraction.

[Post production interview]
"Japanese culture fascinated me since I was a child. The mix of rich tradition and futuristic lifestyle is one of a kind on this planet and for an outsider like me, there's sheer endless discoveries to be made in this world of contrasts with all its beautiful landscape and friendly people.
I'm honoured that this time I got the chance to travel around and experience Japan with a Japanese crew and friends to make this very unique film that showcases all of what we found along the way".

-- Filmmaker Vincent Urban

• Interactive movie

Releasing an interactive movie to allow access to major tourist spots in Japan from all over the world

Without some information on or name of the location where viewers find interesting, they will not visit Japan simply viewing this movie. For this reason, this campaign movie was given dynamic "action" elements, so the viewers can gain deeper insight into the attraction of Japan through interactive movie content, instead of passively "watch" the movie. When paused at a scene of viewers' interest, detailed information on the scene will appear.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161107005505/en/

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