*The Ministry Deputy Director-General recognizes foreign visitors are hard to reach the annual goal

Kosuke Shibata, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Deputy Director-General for General Tourism Policy, mentioned forecast of foreign visitors for 2006 at a news conference: "It is difficultto achieve the goal of 7.5 million foreign visitors for 2006 with the current monthly growth trend. The annual number will probably be7.2 million. However, we will keep making every effort to increase foreign visitors to Japan as many as possible." He particularly expects that 20% increase of air transport volume between Japan and China, which is effective from the end of October this year, will encourage Chinese tourists to visit Japan.

This Week Headline
*The Ministry Deputy Director-General recognizes foreign visitors are hard to reach the annual goal
*Rakuten-ANA Travel Online provides over 10,000 accommodations
*Tourism promotion for Myanmar gets on the move in Japan
*JAL and ANA will reduce fuel surcharges on international flights next January
*ANA strengthens domestic E-ticketing service as well as international interline
*Vladivostok Air made a good start with 70% load factor on New Kitakyushu flights
*Result of domestic transport in the first half of FY2006 shows big rise in passengers on local routes
*Hiroshima resulted in double-digit growth of international flight passengers