9 April 2025 – The Czech pavilion at the EXPO 2025 World Exhibition in Osaka will open on 13 April. On this occasion, Prague City Tourism is presenting a special website for visitors from Japan prague.eu/japan, reflecting fascinating Prague stories and places the Japanese audience will find attractive. Tens of thousands of tourists from the Land of the Rising Sun visit Prague every year, spending an average of 2 to 3 nights in Prague and discovering in particular the local heritage sights. Thousands of tourists from Japan come to Prague every year, with 53,000 of them coming to the capital last year alone, an annual increase of 29 percent. That is why Prague City Tourism has prepared a special website in Japanese prague.eu/japan, especially for potential tourists from Japan, and tailored to their needs and interests. The website contains specially prepared narratives compiled by japanologist Petr Holý. This is also supplemented by a selection of places in Prague and leisure-time tips. These include a choice of walking tours in Japanese. On the website prague.eu/japan, Japanese readers can enjoy the stories of Věra Čáslavská, Alfons Mucha and the mystery of the Prague Golem. “Within the scope of destination management, we make use of findings from research in the humanities. Thanks to this, we are able to strategically tailor our offer according to the country from which the visitor to Prague comes,” says Jana Adamcová, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Prague City Tourism, adding: “We know that names such as Antonín Dvořák and Alfons Mucha resonate with Japanese tourists, so we recount their stories when addressing this clientèle. Vera Čáslavská holds a special place for Japanese visitors; she won their hearts with her sporting performances, her determination, but also with her sympathetic demeanour and natural charm, and during the Olympics was called the “Flower of the Olympic Games五輪の華.” When choosing a destination, Asian travellers, including those from Japan, take into account recommendations from relatives and friends; this compared to those from European nations, for example, who look exclusively online for information. Asians come to Prague primarily for sightseeing and good food, whereas travellers from Europe are motivated to visit not only example by gastronomy, but also for entertainment. Prague has a permanent name in Japan, as described by japanologist Petr Holý: “The Japanese love legends and stories connected with the genius loci of places in Prague or with our literature. The Japanese admire names like Karel Čapek, Franz Kafka, Bohumil Hrabal, Jan Švankmajer, Věra Čáslavská, Alfons Mucha and many others. They like to listen to Czech jazz. Because of their love of music, they understandably know Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák (in the late afternoon, the Largo from his New World symphony can be heard from loudspeakers in many places across Japan), as well as Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů.” He further adds: “They love to go out for excellent food and good coffee in a milieu once visited by famous artists and writers. Prague has preserved its appearance from the past almost unchanged. The Japanese saying “It is better to see once than hear a hundred times” (百聞は一見に如かず) comes to mind. It was this that inspired us when creating and selecting the individual themes,” concludes Holý, a japanologist who has been involved in the creation of the Japanese narratives that Prague City Tourism is using for its marketing.
