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Toyama Light Rail, running in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture. Applying low-floor models for all of its cars, it is drawing attention as an environmentally-friendly, next-generation streetcar featuring, for example, reduced carbon dioxide and nitrogenous compound emissions, lower levels of noise, and alleviating traffic jams.
Various modes of domestic transport are used in Japan; almost all passenger transport is by motor vehicle and railway, while nearly all freight transport is by motor vehicle and cargo ship. A comparison of data between fiscal 1990 and fiscal 2007 showed a marked growth in motor vehicle transportation for both passengers and freight. In the face of the increasing importance of the current issue of CO2 emissions reduction, since approximately 90 percent of CO2 emissions in the transport sector is attributable to motor vehicles, the government is accordingly making various efforts, including encouraging a shift from driving cars to public transportation and the wider use of energy-efficient cars.
No major changes have been observed in recent years in the volume of domestic passenger transport. Public transportation authorities have been taking measures to upgrade their services, by introducing multiple-use cards and IC (Integrated Circuit) cards that can be used with different public railway/bus operators, and by improving the transit convenience between public transport at terminal stations.
In fiscal 2007, the number of domestic transport passengers was 89.95 billion (up 1.8 percent from the previous fiscal year). The total volume of passenger transport was 1.41 trillion passenger-kilometers (up 0.7 percent).
In fiscal 2007, the Japan Railways (JR) group reported 8.99 billion passengers (up 2.4 percent from the previous fiscal year) and 255.21 billion passenger-kilometers (up 2.5 percent). Railways other than JR reported 13.85 billion passengers (up 2.9 percent) and 150.33 billion passenger-kilometers (up 2.4 percent).
In order to encourage the use of buses, various efforts toward improving their convenience and safety have been promoted. Business purpose buses recorded an increase (up 0.5 percent from the previous fiscal year) to 4.56 billion passengers, but a decline in passenger-kilometers (down 0.9 percent) to 71.98 billion passenger-kilometers in fiscal 2007.
Taxi and limousine hire services have marked a long-term downward trend in passengers. They carried 2.14 billion passengers (down 3.3 percent from the previous fiscal year) and reported 11.10 billion passenger-kilometers (down 3.1 percent); both figures of passengers and passenger-kilometers declined in fiscal 2007. Passenger transport via private cars registered 36.63 billion passengers (up 0.2 percent) and 559.53 billion passenger-kilometers (down 1.2 percent).
Air passenger transport hit a record high with 96.97 million people carried in fiscal 2006. There were 94.85 million air passengers carried in fiscal 2007 (down 2.2 percent from the previous fiscal year), which amounted to 84.33 billion passenger-kilometers (down 1.7 percent).
In fiscal 2007, passenger ships reported 100.79 million passengers (up 1.6 percent from the previous fiscal year) and 3.83 billion passenger-kilometers (up 1.3 percent).
In the area of domestic freight, a total of 5.39 billion metric tons (down 0.7 percent from the previous fiscal year) of freight was transported for a total of 582.24 billion ton-kilometers (up 0.6 percent) in fiscal 2007.
As for transport tonnage volume in fiscal 2006, motor vehicle transport accounted for more than 90 percent of the total. Major items transported by motor vehicles were: foodstuffs, textiles and household equipment; and wastes and feed. In terms of transport ton-kilometers, cargo ships, next to motor vehicles, accounted for a substantial portion of volume. The principal items transported by cargo ships were nonferrous ores and metals, petroleum products, etc.
Since 2008, fuel price hikes and global economic downturns have quickly shrunk demand for international air passenger transport with Japanese airlines. In 2008, they transported 16.43 million passengers (down 7.5 percent from the previous year) on international flights, and registered 72.81 billion passenger-kilometers (down 7.5 percent).
The number of Japanese overseas travelers in 2008 dropped from the previous year to 15.99 million (down 7.6 percent). According to the reports on arrivals by tourist offices in countries around the world, the places most visited by Japanese people in 2008 were China, the U.S.A. and the Republic of Korea.
The number of foreign visitors to Japan was 8.35 million in 2008, almost the same as the previous year. Broken down by country/region, the number of visitors from Asian countries was the highest, totaling 6.15 million persons (up 0.4 percent from the previous year). Among Asian countries, the number of visitors from the Republic of Korea was the highest, amounting to 2.38 million, a figure that accounted for 28.5 percent of the total number of foreign visitors to Japan.
Of the total number of foreign visitors to Japan tourists numbered 6.05 million persons, or 72.4 percent of total foreign visitors. The highest number of tourists came from the Republic of Korea with 1.89 million travelers, followed by Taiwan with 1.26 million travelers.
The volume of seaborne foreign transport in 2007 was 833.22 million tons, up 3.8 percent over the previous year. Of this figure, total exports increased by 3.7 percent to 56.70 million tons, and total imports increased by 4.8 percent to 527.47 million tons.
Air-shipped international freight in 2008 totaled 1.31 million tons in terms of volume (down 2.7 percent from the previous year) and 7.45 billion tons in terms of ton-kilometers (down 13.4 percent).
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