Next June, hundreds of students in the music department will join this ever-expanding crowd for a two-week performance and exchange trip. 

Picking Japan for this trip was a popular choice among students and their parents. The island nation, which has almost 123 million people in a land mass slightly smaller than California, offers dozens of engaging and enriching activities and sights and a thriving music community, but there are even more reasons to go there in the near future.

Yen’s decline, pop culture and technology all contribute to Japan’s global appeal

As of Sept. 28, the Reuters’ FX page showed the dollar is worth ≈ ¥149.49, near the stronger end of its past-year range, making meals, public transportation and necessities a bargain for U.S. travelers.

In comparison, during much of the 2010s, the exchange rate floated near ¥100 per $1. This means a ¥10,000 stay at a hotel costing around $100 in the 2010s would cost roughly $66.89 today.

In a broader perspective, the yen’s value is a double-edged sword. On one hand, imports cost more for Japanese citizens, squeezing household budgets. At the same time, for tourists, it means the exact opposite: cheaper food, cheaper train rides and cheaper museum tickets. 

But for those wanting to travel solely for low prices, not everything follows this pattern. Airfare and popular hotels don’t always charge in yen; instead, they may be priced in other currencies such as the dollar or euro. Rooms in Tokyo or Kyoto can run high when the tourist season arrives, so big-ticket items still stay firm in terms of economic value while small necessities continue to fluctuate with exchange rates.

While prices and flights influence when people choose to visit Japan, culture is often the core reason visitors want to go in the first place. 

This continuous rise of Japanese culture’s popularity today stems largely from social media: TikToks of limited-edition Japanese snacks, photography spots near Mt. Fuji and anime cafes across Kyoto are constantly showcased to millions worldwide, driving interest in the country.

Japanese culture is woven into food, entertainment, tech and fashion;  traveling there means experiencing those influences firsthand.

In particular, Japanese dietary culture, washoku, was inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013, recognizing that Japan’s everyday food customs are worth preserving and teaching. The exposure that comes from being on such a list draws more visitors who want to try out washoku and experience it firsthand.

Similarly, theme parks have become bustling travel magnets. Most recently, Universal Studios Japan opened Donkey Kong Country in December 2024, the world’s first dedicated area to the Donkey Kong franchise. The expansion added new rides and themed spaces to the park and quickly drew global attention on TikTok and YouTube. 

 Technology has also been booming recently, especially in Shinkansen bullet trains, smart tech and cutting-edge vending machines.

According to The Guardian, the Shinkansen’s trains can reach speeds of 320 km/h (200 mph), with average delays of only 1.6 minutes. The trains are famous for their near-perfect stabilization and promptness; since their debut, the trains have had zero recorded fatalities and carried more than seven billion passengers, appealing to many people who want to experience the engineering marvel.

Everyday tech is just as notable. Bokksu and Oomi Travel offer more than 5.5 million vending machines across the country — about one for every 23 people — and they sell everything from hot coffee to ramen, ice cream and quirky gadgets. 

Additionally, the growth of Japanese pop culture has been amplified in fashion, making shopping a major reason visitors open their wallets in Japan. According to Japan’s Tourism Agency, about 29.5% of all tourists say they chose to go there in part to spend on shopping in 2024. That includes apparel and sneakers, where the weak yen and tax-free benefits make certain items a bargain.

A well-renowned sneaker brand, ASICS, even notes that tourists contribute a meaningful slice of Onitsuka Tiger sales in Japan. Shoes like the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 have gone viral online, fired up by TikTok videos and celebrities from Bella Hadid to Uma Thurman.

Japan’s new travel policies will be implemented during the school’s two-week tour

When junior Veeren Ubale’s family stopped in Japan for 10 days this past summer, they split his time between Tokyo, Shinjuku and Mount Fuji, comfortably enjoying the new culture and food without restriction.

“It was very crowded, but it was much cleaner than New York, so it didn’t feel chaotic,” he said. “Seven-Eleven was astonishingly cheap.”

Junior Landon Pham’s family also explored Japan, visiting Tokyo, Kyoto and Mount Fuji with his family. His favorite part was the food — specifically sushi, sashimi and ramen — but he also liked how different the interactive culture felt compared to the U.S.

“I loved the food and how cheap everything was,” he said. “People were a lot nicer and quieter. Everyone was trying to help.”

Pham explained how a softer currency turned his indecisions while shopping into an advantage; it was always a treasure hunt to find one more overly engineered candy, one more limited-edition soda and one more chance to try something strange because the math was forgiving.

“If I had three days in Japan again, I’d just eat more food and try more things,” he said.

Both Ubale and Pham came home with the same conclusion: Japan was cheap, welcoming and unforgettable — a place they would happily go back to. 

But as the end of 2025 nears, their exact trip will be harder to repeat because of the implementation of Japan’s new policies trying to curb overtourism.

In 2026, Japan is updating its national tourism blueprint: The new plan is to reach 60 million visitors by 2030 and ¥15 trillion in tourist spending.

Using technology to manage crowds, such as live crowd data, digital access and capacity controls, the approach is to spread visitors beyond the Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka regions, while funding local neighborhood upgrades to benefit residents too. 

On the traveler side, the government is presenting logistics digitally: Visit Japan Web helps streamline immigration, customs and tax-free shopping rules; Japan’s eVISA continues to expand to more countries. 

The summer of 2026 will see around 400 SHS kids going to Japan with these new policies in place. Music directors Jason Shiuan and Michael Boitz said they look forward to a two-week trip through Tokyo, Lake Kawaguchi, Kyoto, Kobe and Hiroshima, but there will be challenges. 

With over 2,000 concert halls across Japan, the rich music culture was one of the deciding factors on why the music department decided to visit. Beginning in Tokyo at the Iwakura High School, the SHS band, orchestras and choir will have performances at every location except for Kyoto.

Bringing such a large group means complicated logistics, especially when it comes to traveling between provinces. With Kyoto merely being a stop for sightseeing, Shiuan expressed some concern about bringing such a large group of people to a country already facing problems with overtourism.

“Since we’re bringing around 400-500 people at once, we will most likely have to do everything in cycles to avoid overcrowding,” Shiuan said.  “Going from one city to another in a train means we will have to go at multiple different times in order to not overwhelm the train station.”

The program decided to cut back on many tourist sites from the initial itinerary due to how unrealistic it was for all the students to get through in a timely manner, especially with the new restrictions in place. For example, for tourists looking to explore Mount Fuji, there’s a newly installed daily cap of 4,000 climbers with an accompanying ¥2,000 ($13.50) booking fee on the famous Yoshida Trail in an effort to combat overcrowding and environmental damage. 

As exchange rates wobble, Japan keeps getting easier to visit. 

Ranked No. 1 globally for being the most likely destination for tourists to revisit, Japan is slowly inching toward its goal of 60 million annual visitors. 

Next June, hundreds of students and their adult chaperones will be among them.

“This is something we’ve dreamed about for more than a decade,” Shiuan said, “Now that it’s finally happening, I hope it sparks memories students will carry for the rest of their lives.”