The weakening of the yen against the shekel has made prices in Japan very attractive for Israelis observes Eshet Tours VP Shirley Cohen-Orkaby. "Although flights are not cheap," she says, "but the vacation in Japan itself is certainly affordable."
And Israelis are voting with their feet. "The peak of the tourist season in Japan (for Israelis) is in April - the cherry blossoms there and the Passover holiday here - and for that month we see an increase of 88% between 2024 and 2025."
Cohen-Orkaby believes that Israeli tourism will continue even if there is a change in the shekel-yen exchange rate. "Israeli demand for tourism in Japan is based on other factors: direct flights, culture, personal safety, the absence of anti-Semitism, the combination of tradition and progress."
This also relates to broader policy aspects. In 2023, the Japanese government formed a plan to become a tourist country, and the aim for the end of the decade is 60 million tourists annually who will bring in $100 billion. In the first ten months of 2025, 35.5 million tourists entered Japan, and in October alone the number was 3.9 million - an increase of 17.6% compared with October 2024.
Tensions with China may also come into play. In October 2025, Chinese tourists accounted for about 18% of the total number of tourists in Japan. But as part of the escalation in tensions between Japan and China, in November, China issued a travel warning for Japan, and if this continues, Japanese tourism could suffer considerable damage. It is therefore expected that the government will accelerate the assistance it is providing to the industry, and it is possible that the compensation will be felt by tourists who do visit the country.
Why hasn’t this happened until now?
"Japan has always been a desirable destination," notes Cohen-Orkaby, "but it was very expensive and it was awkward to get to. Today, with the opening of direct flights and the reduction in prices in terms of the Israeli currency, a vacation there is much more accessible."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 21, 2025.
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