Whale Watching Worldwide

Japan
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditures
Total
expenditure
1991 10,992 N/A N/A $371,000 $4,377,000 $4,748,000
1994 55,192 71.2% N/A $3,384,000 $20,155,000 $23,539,000
1998 102,785 16.8% 45 $4,300,000 $28,684,000 $32,984,000
2008 191,970 6.4% 104 $7,375,076 $15,345,902 $22,720,978
Capital City: Tokyo
Japan has a large cetacean watching industry spread across the
length of the country. From Hokkaido in the north to tropical
Okinawa and Ogasawara in the south, whale watchers can see a
wide variety of whales and dolphins. The industry has grown
strongly since 1998, at an average annual rate of 6.4%. Indirect
expenditure figures have been calculated using different
methodology, and are not directly comparable to earlier figures.
The current indirect expenditure figure is based on half a day or a
full‐day of average tourist expenditure depending on the length of
the tour. See methodology section for more details.
The largest cetacean watching region is Kyushu, with year‐round sightings of bottlenose dolphins attracting
over 100,000 visitors. The other main islands – Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku – all have substantial
commercial whale watching operations, as do outlying islands such as Ogasawara and Okinawa, where
seasonal humpback watching provides income to tour operators during their traditional low season.
Japan’s whale watchers are nearly all Japanese, with most operators reporting domestic tourists account for
90% to 100% of visitors.
Below we have included a regional breakdown of the main whale watching locations across Japan. The data
in the following sections reflect regional proportions of the above total number of whale watchers for the
entire country.
Region Number of whale AAGR Operators Direct Indirect
Total
watchers
expenditure expenditure expenditure
Kyushu 115,600 8.3% 16 $2,998,407 $5,317,600 $8,316,007
Honshu 10,250 5.5% 5 $476,419 $1,060,875 $1,537,294
Ogasawara,
Miyakejima,
Mikurajima
28,700 6.9% 47 $1,868,400 $4,099,317 $5,967,717
Hokkaido 10,420 5.6% 8 $717,875 $995,110 $1,712,985
Okinawa 20,000 5.4% 20 $986,667 $2,900,000 $3,886,667
Shikoku 7,000 ‐8.9% 8 $327,308 $973,000 $1,300,308
Total (2008) 191,970 6.4% 104 $7,375,076 $15,345,902 $22,720,978
Total (1998) 102,785 16.8% 45 $4,300,000 $28,684,000 $32,984,000
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to Yumi Ishikawa, Toshi Shirai and Kae Yoneyama.
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