Contents tourism in Japan : pilgrimages to "sacred sites" of popular culture / Philip Seaton, Takayoshi Yamamura, Akiko Sugawa-Shimada, and Kyungjae Jang.

"In 2005, the Japanese government recognized in official documents for the first time that Japanese popular culture had another potential: to increase international visitor numbers to Japan and energize the domestic tourism industry. The term used in Japan to describe this form of tourism induced by popular culture is kontentsu tsurizumu, 'contents tourism.' Contents tourism is defined as travel behavior motivated fully or partially by narratives, characters, locations, and other creative elements of popular culture forms, including film, television dramas, manga, anime, novels, and computer games. This book presents a comprehensive theoretical and historical overview of the phenomenon of contents tourism in Japan. It is a groundbreaking book in an important and rapidly emerging area of scholarly, media, political and business interest. It will be of interest primarily to scholars and practitioners with a specialization in tourism and media, but also to those studying contemporary popular culture in Japan and East Asia"--Provided by publisher.