JAPAN NATIONAL TOURIST ORGANIZATION Level 18, Australia Square Tower, 264 George Street, Sydney N.S.W. 2000 Australia TEL : Public (02) 9251 3024 FAX : (02) 9251 3031 Email :
[email protected] Home Page : www.jnto.go.jp. VJC Launched in Australia On October 5th the Visit Japan Campaign (VJC) was launched in Australia, with a series of events held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney. Travel agents, airline and tourism related representatives, and media attended the launch which was sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). In 2005, Australia, along with Canada, Singapore and Thailand became a target market for the Visit Japan Campaign, which aims at attracting 10 million visitors to Japan by the year 2010. At present Japan receives just over 6 million visitors. The highlight of the day’s program was the Japan-Australia Tourism Night with Japan’s Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Hideaki Ueda, Minister for Small Business and Tourism, the Honorary Fran Bailey MP, Vice Minister for International Affairs at MLIT, the Honorary Hiroshi Maruyama and one of Japan’s Charisma Ambassadors of Tourism, Ross Findlay among the special guests in attendance. The Tourism Night also featured a Japanese taiko performance by Sydney based drum group TaikOZ and traditional Japanese dancing by two apprentice geisha from Kyoto City. (Speaking of geisha, the film adaptation of the internationally acclaimed novel, Memoirs of a Geisha is due to be released in cinemas in Australia in January 2006. It is expected that interest in Japan will increase after the film’s release).