Nature and (pop) Culture Tourism in Hokkaido

For more than a decade now, the worldwide diffusion of Japanese pop culture has been analyzed as a soft power phenomenon, questioning the consequences of this success on the international image of Japan. Many studies have examine whether or not Japan is really gaining positive influence thank to contents exports, while the Japanese officials acknowledged the idea of coolness associated to the country, consequently launching the "cool Japan" campaign. In the field of tourism, many initiatives have been taken to enhance contents tourism. Foreign travelers can now find information and activities about manga, animation, video games and so on, and some areas have been renewed and rebuilt to attract these tourists, Akihabara (Tokyo) being the main example. The idea of pilgrimage has been used to characterized the trip to these "sacred places", as the Japanese national Tourism Office delivers information about what is called "seichi jinrei" or "pilgrimage to sacred places" (http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/cultural/pilgrimage/index.html; http://otakumode.com/sp/visit_japan )

In that context, Hokkaido is a specific case, considering the traditional tourist activities in the island. The place is famous for its landscape and its countryside, with tourism linked to nature and outdoor sports (hike, ski). Nevertheless, some locations in Hokkaido attract many tourists for other reasons, linked to pop culture. For example, the success of two movies, Love letter and If you are the one, attracted Korean and Chinese tourists in Hokkaido, with many visitors who want to discover the places where the movies were shot. Then, the aim of this presentation is to question the possible shift from nature tourism to pop culture tourism in Hokkaido, through the comparative example of Japanese, Asian and Western tourists. The notion of soft power is also going to be examined as a means to influence image and meaning of sites.