Developing the Japanese Market for Philippine Tourism and Retirement Services: Prospects and Impediments

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This paper aims to assess the prospects and impediments to developing the Philippine’s tourism and retirement services for the Japanese market. The impediments identified are in the areas of air access, peace and order situation, marketing and promotions and market information as well as human resource training. Given that the Japanese population is aging rapidly and the cost of medical and caregiving services in Japan remains to be one of the highest in the world, tourism destinations like Thailand and Malaysia have developed and aggressively positioned themselves in niches like medical and long stay programs. The Philippines currently possesses a relatively good supply of caregivers, real estate facilities for long stay programs and a government agency mandated to devote its resources and efforts in these programs.