Number of international conferences in Japan 2014-2023

In 2023, the number of international conferences hosted in Japan amounted to 1.38 thousand. It was still considerably low compared to Japan's peak result in 2019, which saw more than 3.6 thousand such events, but a noticeable increase compared to the preceding year. The Japan National Tourism Organization and other responsible organizations work on improving Japan's ability and potential to host international conferences. The aim is to become Asia's number one destination for conventions by 2030. Governmental organizations such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan (MLIT) and the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) actively seek to attract more visitors to Japan through business conferences, conventions, and exhibitions since the beginning of the past decade.   

Conference topics

Conference topics are broad, from science and technology to medicine, politics, economy, religion, and the arts. The most common themes of international conferences are, under normal circumstances, science and technology-related events, followed by conventions covering medicine.    

Foreign participation

The Japanese government, local authorities, and organizers attracted an increasingly high number of foreign participants to international conventions in the decade leading up to COVID-19. The pandemic put an end to inbound travel and, thus, to foreign participation at international conferences.