This reflects the boom in total tourism to Japan since the pandemic, with a record number of foreign visitors in 2025.
The Brits in their 20s and 30s I spoke to gave a long list of reasons for wanting to go to Japan – the cityscapes, food, anime, nature, history, gaming, temples. But they largely agreed that social media was the main driving force behind so many young people heading there.
When Maitri Sanghvi scrolled through TikTok, “Japan just kept popping up,” she says.
It was a big reason why Maitri, 24, and her boyfriend went for three weeks earlier this year. “Seeing [Japan] on social media restarted my urge of wanting to go,” she says.
Search #japantravel on TikTok or Instagram and you’ll see countless videos of Mount Fuji, bowls of steaming ramen, itinerary suggestions, small villages in the Japanese Alps, the Fushimi Inari torii gates in Kyoto, the neon lights of Osaka’s Dotonbori, and the chaos of Shibuya Crossing.
“Seeing other people’s Japan videos definitely influenced my decision to go,” says Aden Ibrahim, 29.
