Six in Ten Japan Travelers Use Generative AI to Plan Summer Trips

Six in ten Japanese travelers are now using generative AI to plan their summer trips, a shift that Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance says is pushing printed guidebooks out of the itinerary. The same survey found households are pulling back hard on what they spend once they get there, with average summer leisure outlays falling 18.8% year-on-year to ¥85,145 ($525).

Conducted in June on 1,120 people in their 20s through 50s, the Meiji Yasuda survey found 61.2% of those planning a domestic or overseas trip this summer refer to generative AI for itineraries, local food tips, and transport information. The pullback on spending, the firm said, reflects the weakening yen, stubborn inflation, and an unusually hot summer, and it is reshaping both where Japanese travelers go and how they plan to get there.

From Guidebook to Chatbot

“The main tool people use for planning trips and doing research when they get there is shifting from travel guidebooks to generative AI,” Meiji Yasuda said in a statement accompanying the survey. The wording captures a quiet rewiring of the pre-trip hour, as travelers who once dog-eared a Lonely Planet now paste a few bullet points into a chatbot and ask for a five-day route, a kaiseki lunch that will not break the bank, and the last train home from Hakone.

The 61.2% adoption rate arrived faster than most travel-industry benchmarks predicted. IMG’s 2026 Travel Outlook survey put the share of respondents likely to use AI tools to help plan travel at 33% globally. Japan’s trip-specific number is roughly double that, a gap that matches what Japanese travel desks have been reporting from their booking queues for the past year.

A separate Mynavi survey found 60.1% of full-time employees in Japan in their 20s through 50s have used generative AI for some purpose, evidence that the travel-planning figure is not an outlier inside Japanese working-age life. It is part of the same adoption curve, surfacing now in the season when households make their biggest leisure decisions.

Where the 61.2% Goes

Most of those 61.2% are not asking a chatbot to book anything. They are asking it to build the bones of the trip. Meiji Yasuda’s survey lists three specific jobs the AI is doing: drafting itineraries, surfacing local food recommendations, and translating transport options between cities and rural stops.

Once they arrive at the destination, the same toolkit keeps running. Travelers ping the chatbot for the closest ramen shop to their hotel, the platform number at the next station, and whether the museum they planned for is closed on Mondays. The research that used to live in a guidebook under the hotel bed now lives in a chat history on the phone.

The shift also correlates with a smaller summer travel footprint overall. More than 40% of the survey’s respondents said they do not plan to travel during the summer holidays at all, and the mix of those who do travel has tilted decisively domestic. The numbers behind that mix:

• 61.2% using generative AI for itineraries, food, and transport information
• 58.4% going out for summer holidays, down 6.3 percentage points from a year ago
• 57.6% traveling inside Japan, up 1 percentage point
• 6.4% traveling overseas, roughly halved from 13.5% last year
• More than 40% not traveling at all during the summer

The Yen Squeeze

The pullback on spending is not driven by AI, and the survey says so plainly. “Reflecting the recent weakening of the yen and inflation, many people are choosing closer destinations and cheaper hotels,” the firm said. The same macro forces that are reshaping where Japanese travelers go are also reshaping how much they spend when they get there.

Kazutaka Maeda, senior economist at Meiji Yasuda, put a name to the cause: “People are less enthusiastic about going out because of the extreme heat and high prices.” His firm’s figure for the average amount Japanese adults said they would spend on leisure during summer vacation, ¥85,145 ($525), is down 18.8% from the previous year, and it marks the first year-on-year decline since 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. A generation that has reached for generative AI to plan a cheaper trip is also reaching for a cheaper trip to plan.

Outbound Halves, Domestic Tilts East

JTB Corp, Japan’s largest travel agency, put firmer numbers on the same forces in its own projections for the July 15 to Aug. 31 period. JTB’s 2026 summer travel projections put overseas trips from Japan at a cumulative 2.17 million, down 8.8% on the year and the first year-on-year decline since the post-pandemic recovery in 2023. Average overseas travel expenditure per person per trip is estimated to rise 6.3% to ¥323,000 ($2,000), lifted by the weak yen and by fuel surcharges JTB attributes to aviation fuel prices during the Middle East crisis.

Outbound demand is collapsing not just in volume but in distance. Long-haul destinations such as North America and Australia have given way to nearby ones with affordable airfares. South Korea leads at 26.2% of the outbound mix, with Taiwan at 16.2%, and visits to China projected at 10.1%, about half of last year’s figure, with JTB pointing to strained relations between Tokyo and Beijing over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan.

Domestic trips are expected to drop 4.4% from the previous year to a cumulative 69 million, while average spending per person is projected to rise 3.2% to ¥48,500. Kanto, the region around Tokyo, is expected to be the most popular domestic destination at 19.0%, with Kinki in western Japan at 14.9% and Hokkaido in the country’s north at 11.2%. A JTB official described the picture as polarization, with travelers either cutting back, sometimes by shortening the trip, or taking the trip they want even if it costs more. The macro climate they are cutting through also includes Japan’s newly tripled international departure tax of ¥3,000 per person, in force since July 1, 2026 to fund measures against overtourism (Japan’s ¥3,000 International Tourist Tax).

Parents Split on AI for Homework

The same June survey asked a separate question of parents with school-age children, and the answer split sharply. 38.2% said they want their children to use generative AI for summer homework, while 26.4% said they do not. The reasoning on both sides shows how unsettled the broader cultural conversation still is. Those in favor said the children’s inquisitive mind and explanation skills will be nurtured through creating questions to give to AI and getting answers. Those opposed said copying answers given by AI could erode children’s thinking skills and hamper them from acquiring scholastic proficiency.

That split, from the same survey that produced the 61.2% travel-planning figure, suggests AI’s role in adult decisions in Japan is moving faster than its role in the next generation’s schoolwork. The trip-planning chatbot is already on the phone. The homework chatbot is still being argued over at the kitchen table.

Frequently Asked Questions

What survey found 61.2% of Japanese travelers using generative AI?

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance surveyed 1,120 people in their 20s through 50s in June 2026 about their summer holiday plans. The 61.2% figure refers specifically to those planning a domestic or overseas trip who say they refer to generative AI for itineraries, local food information, and transport details. The Japan Times published a translation of the survey’s findings in July 2026.

Why is Japanese summer travel spending falling?

The survey itself cites two pressures: the recent weakening of the yen and persistent inflation. Maeda, the firm’s senior economist, attributed the falloff in enthusiasm for going out to extreme heat and high prices. The 18.8% YoY drop in average leisure spend to ¥85,145 ($525) is the first year-on-year decline since 2021.

How does Japan’s AI travel-planning adoption compare globally?

Japan’s 61.2% is roughly double the 33% global figure that IMG’s 2026 Travel Outlook measured for AI-tool use in trip planning. Mynavi’s separate survey of Japanese full-time workers found 60.1% had used generative AI for some purpose, which lines up with the Meiji Yasuda travel-planning number and suggests the Japanese adoption curve is ahead of international averages.

What does the parent split on AI for homework show?

In the same June 2026 Meiji Yasuda survey, 38.2% of parents with school-age children said they want their children to use generative AI for summer homework, while 26.4% said they do not. Supporters pointed to developing inquisitive thinking; opponents raised concerns about copied answers eroding study skills. The split is wider than the gap on adult AI use, which is what one would expect for a household technology whose classroom rules are still being written.