The fifth-floor, 1,200sqm (12,900sq ft) Evian spa will have five treatment rooms, a VIP treatment suite and separate ladies and men relaxation areas. Wet areas include include heated baths, reclining baths, cold plunge pools and a selection of saunas.

A health and fitness suite equipped by Technogym and Life Fitness and a 20m indoor swimming pool will also feature.

The spa’s design is a metaphorical reflection of the journey Evian natural mineral water takes through the Alps, from the loose stone garden at reception signifying the water’s source (at the beginning of the stream on the top of the mountain) to the ceiling of the treatment rooms reflecting ripples in a pond.

The treatment menu – also inspired by the Evian brand – will feature treatments themed around “celestial restoration”, mineral enrichment, nourishment and vitality. Products will be supplied by Omnisens and Anne Semonin.

The signature treatment, called The Vitalising Signature, has been created exclusively for the spa. It starts off with Japanese trigger point-style bodywork to improve the flow of Qi throughout before a Swedish-style deep tissue massage is applied to release tension and ‘trigger’ the body to naturally restore its own balance from within.

Outside the spa, hotel guests will be able to enjoy a culinary journey, as the hotel has announced its ambition to gain Michelin stars at several of its 10 restaurants.

On the hotel’s sixth floor is the French restaurant Crown, headed by Patrick Henriroux, who has maintained a two-star restaurant at La Pyramide in Vienne, France for more than 10 years.

Japanese Shinji Kanesaka – a two-star Michelin chef – will be responsible for a total of four restaurants within the hotel, while Chugoku Hanten Group, operator of Tokyo’s two Michelin-starred Fureika, will run the Cantonese-themed eatery Amber Palace on the fifth floor.

Takashi Kobayashi, president of Palace Hotel Group, said: “There is only one Tokyo, and there will only be one experience like the Palace Hotel.

“From the Aji stones at our entrance to the linens in our guest rooms, from the omotenashi at first encounter to the general management, we’re celebrating an unfiltered appreciation of our country’s culture.

“As for our restaurants, our goal is not simply to complement our guests’ accommodation experience but to create several, new dining icons in this city – a constellation of opportunity.”

The new hotel succeeds two previous hotels – the Hotel Teito and Palace Hotel – that occupied the same site from 1947 and 1961 respectively. Each has been razed in order to make way for its successor.

On the evening of January 23, Kazuki Sakaguchi, 48, was taken into custody for allegedly mixing sleeping powder into a tea beverage consumed by a woman in her 20s whom he met on a deai-kei encounter Web site. Once she was asleep, Sakaguchi snatched her undergarments and mobile phone.

Sakaguchi denies the charges. “I drugged her and took her underwear, but I did not undress her,” he is quoted as saying.

According to police, the suspect dropped the knock-out drug into a bottle of tea. The woman soon became dizzy, and upon waking at around 6:00 a.m. the next morning found herself on the hotel bed fully naked. Investigators are aware of similar incidents and are looking into whether this case is related.

Journalist Yukio Murakami, Nikkan Gendai’s (Apr. 21) resident expert on sleazy subjects, explains that stripping off a woman’s lingerie is actually a small matter. “There are cases in which men sell videos showing them having sex with women who are unconscious,” says the sex scribe. “A woman’s phone number can be obtained via her driver’s license. With that, she will be extorted for cash or forced to have sex again in exchange for the non-sale of such tapes.”

Last year Norway exported nearly 60,000 tonnes of mackerel to China, which then sells a lot of processed fish to Japanese companies. But rising labour costs in China have forced Japanese importers to look for other countries that process fish.

Japanese fish traders consider that Norway should take the opportunity and process some of the mackerel and export it to Japan.

Japanese imports of processed mackerel reached a peak of around 10,000 tonnes in 2006. After a downward trend, in 2010 it increased again to over 10,000 tonnes. Last year imports reached 11,000 tonnes, of which 7,300 tonnes were imported from China, 2,990 tonnes came from Thailand and 820 tonnes were from Vietnam, representing an increase of 32 per cent for China, 53 per cent for Thailand and 25 per cent for Vietnam.

Norway exported 59,946 tonnes of mackerel to China, 2,409 tonnes to Thailand and 1,950 tonnes to Vietnam. The weight of Japan’s imports of processed mackerel from Thailand shows that they consist of much more than just Norwegian mackerel.

In China, labour costs in fish processing plants increased by 20 per cent or 30 per cent over the past three years. In Thailand, labour costs increased by 5 per cent last year. However, from 1 April this year the Government set the new minimum wage, which increased labour costs by approximately 40 per cent. To reduce costs, companies must streamline, reduce staff or take other measures.

Seafood consumption in Japan has been declining steadily for many years. A sharp rise in prices will reduce seafood consumption further.

Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan, who was in Tokyo for the announcement, said Jetstar Japan would redefine Japan’s travel patterns and link millions of Japanese in regional centres to Australia.

“Jetstar Japan is good news for Australian tourism,” he said. “Connecting our international services from Tokyo and Osaka with our new domestic network makes it easier for Japanese to visit Australia, which is high on their wish lists.”

The local tourism industry has been under pressure due to declining visitor numbers from some markets amid a strong local currency. Japan has gone from being Australia’s top tourist market in the heady days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the fifth-largest source of visitors.

But Tourism Australia said yesterday it was noticing some increase in Japanese visitor numbers, after a sharp fall following the tsunami last year, and Jetstar Japan’s launch would provide a further boost.

“Japanese visitor arrivals have grown 4.4 per cent over the first two months of 2012, and we foresee more positive forward growth from these green shoots,” Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said.

The international travel and tourism industry’s annual summit opened in northern Japan on Monday, as the sector moves to recover from a year filled with economic turbulence and natural disasters.

More than two years after JAL filed for bankruptcy protection, the airline has completed rehabilitation procedures and is in a position to recruit the minimum necessary number of new graduates.

The recruitment will include around 30 planning officials as well as about 200 cabin attendants who will be hired as contract employees.

“Previously, Japan has always been our number one supplier of tourists. Now, the country is only number three,” he said in Denpasar on Wednesday.

The deaths of two Japanese citizens on the island, as well as the tsunami disaster in Japan, contributed to the cutback of tourist arrivals from the archipelago nation.

Riko Sano, a 33-year-old Japanese woman, was found dead in Kuta in September 2009, while Hiromi Shimada was killed at her rented house, also in Kuta, two months later.

“They are very sensitive about such cases,” Subhiksu said of Japanese holidaymakers.

The closing of a Bali-Osaka flight route have also made it tougher for Japanese nationals to visit Bali, he added.
Subhiksu said that a promotional event in Osaka will help fix Bali’s image as a safe place to vacation.

“Hopefully, we can boost arrivals from Japan with the promotion,” said Bali Tourism Board chairman Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, adding that Indonesia had not done anything to promote Bali in the country in the past four years.

“We have been depending only on Japan’s travel agents for the last four years,” he said.

The Japan Rail Pass is a great deal and if you take lots of day trips from Tokyo you will get your money’s worth. While the Japanese rail network is the world’s finest and an attraction in its own right, I’m not sure that spending a lot of time on trains is the best recipe for a fulfilling holiday.

Kyoto deserves a couple of days at the very least and I would strongly recommend a minimum one-night stay. En route, you might also want to include Hakone, gateway to Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, which has a number of short touring options with Mount Fuji as a backdrop. You might also consider a short trip from Kyoto to Hiroshima.

The special Cherry Blossom Season Edition provides some of the best locations to enjoy the sights, with beautiful pictures from last year’s blossoms. The guide looks at several of the big attractions in Japan, providing details on shops and restaurants in each area.

Alongside short blurbs of information at every location, users can freely take a virtual walk around some of Japan’s most beautiful temples and parks. The information is available in English, Japanese and Chinese.

After last years devastating earthquake, visiting Japan has become a less appealing prospect for many tourists. The Fukushima nuclear plant is still not completely under control, and despite only one nuclear reactor remaining online across Japan, many are still dubious about the radiation levels.

Some tourists do not consider Japan safe, which given the predictions of another quake in the near future, is understandable. Despite this, the number of visitors coming to Japan has been steadily improving and this time of year is a big draw for tourism.

Many are gathering for hanami (flower viewing) parties — a long standing tradition that sees thousands gathering in parks to celebrate the blossoms throughout the day and into the night.

Usually this means lots of food and drink with friends, and a little admiring of flowers. There is even a saying in Japanese, ‘hana yori dango’, meaning ‘dumplings not flowers’ as a joke about most of these parties.

As the flowers only last a few weeks, it is imperative to see them whilst they are blossoming, and forecasts are aired on television to help predict when the season will begin.

Google previously provided images of the devastation of the Tohoku earthquake in Street View, allowing users to see areas from before and after the tsunami.

The damage to Japan’s tourism industry is reflected by the significant downturn in the number of international arrivals–In 2010, Japan welcomed over 8.6 million international arrivals and in 2011, the total international arrivals dropped by 28 percent to just over 6.2 million arrivals. The cost to Japan’s economy and especially its international inbound tourism industry is estimated to be about US$6 billion.

The Japanese tourism industry has undertaken a major campaign to try and restore international visitation and confidence in Japan. The primary challenge is to overcome the damaging but false perception that all or most of Japan is under radioactive cloud. Certainly the tsunami’s damage to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in the Sendai Prefecture (150 kms north of Tokyo) did result in radioactive leakage that impacted most heavily an area within about 25 kms of the plant (which is still under an exclusion zone). The appalling miscommunication of the damage to the power plant by the Tokyo Electronic Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government emitted waves of distrust and speculation far more damaging than the radioactivity emitted from the damaged power station.

I was invited by the prefectural government of Okinawa and the Japan Tourism Board to be the keynote speaker at a tourism crisis management conference, held in the prefectural capital Naha on March 12, 2012, to mark the first anniversary of the Japan earthquake and tsunami. Okinawa, which is the southern extremity of the Japanese chain of islands, is a three-hour flight (1,500 kms ) south of Tokyo and is the main island in a cluster of 200 islands, of which about 60 are inhabited. Being on the same latitude as Hawaii, Okinawa shares Hawaii’s warm subtropical climate, dramatic scenery and is a popular tourist destination for Japanese. In fact, it even has its own Okinawan version of “Aloha” shirts which is worn by all classes of people–from the governor to working people. Six million Japanese visit Okinawa each year, but attracts only 300,000 foreign visitors per annum. The many and varied charms of Okinawa are something of a secret to the rest of the world. Having now had some experience in Okinawa, I found it to one of the most inspiring places I have ever visited. It has a very distinctive culture and history that sets it apart from the rest of Japan.

Okinawa has a wide-range of fine hotels and resorts. During my visit, I was shown the comprehensive range of protective measures that the local tourism and hospitality industry have taken to shield their guests from earthquakes, typhoons and tsunamis. Every hotel room in Okinawa has a colouful manual in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean explaining possible risks and measure to deal with them. Many of the newer coastal resorts have accommodation built on higher ground and a shuttle service to the seashore. Older seaside resorts restrict guest accommodation to above ground floors. Most have well-developed alarm, rescue and evacuation procedures in the event of natural disasters. In Okinawa, attractions, hotels, inter-island cruises and resorts consistently demonstrate world’s best practice in guest safety and risk readiness.

The prefectural government tourism authority and the tourism industry take the issue of risk management seriously. Okinawa Prefectural Governor Hirokazu Nakaima told me and a small group of Okinawa tourism leaders that the safety of tourists and the tourism industry’s preparedness of tourism infrastructure and businesses for natural disasters was the top priority for his government. It was certainly clear that these words were being matched by action. Among tourism industry professionals in Okinawa crisis management and risk readiness is practiced with fervent commitment.

The Okinawa Tourism Crisis Management Conference, held at the Naha Convention Centre on March 12, 2012, was attended by over 130 tourism industry and government leaders and was widely-covered by national TV and local media. Tourism safety and post-tsunami tourism recovery is a matter of intense public interest in Japan in general, but especially among Okinawa’s 2 million people as it is the prefecture’s main industry. Mr. Masato Takamatsu and his team from Japan Marketing Company have been commissioned to develop a crisis management manual for the entire Okinawa tourism industry and the conference was a part of that strategy for crisis preparedness. Certainly, communicating the very simple message that most regions of Japan including Okinawa are safe and secure for tourism is an integral part of Japan’s tourism recovery strategy. My presentation focused on the issue of crisis and recovery communication.

The Okinawa conference served as a precursor to the Global Tourism Summit, which being organized by the World Travel and Tourism Council in association with the UN World Tourism Organization and Pacific Asia Travel Association in Sendai and Tokyo starting on April 16. The summit will include extensive focus on tourism risk and crisis management issues, especially as they affect Japan.