Half of Japanese People Staying at Home This Summer
The weak yen, hot weather and too many foreign tourists — these are just some of the things that are keeping Japanese people at home this summer.
That's after a survey by insurance company Nippon Life found that almost half of Japanese people wouldn't be traveling this year.
According to the survey, 48% of people said they'd stay at home or spend time in their local area.
This comes at a time when the weak yen is helping to bring record numbers of tourists to the country.
But worries about the economy seem to have encouraged many Japanese people to save their money this summer.
Just 16% of people said they plan to go on holidays inside Japan, while one in 10 said they'd do day trips to nearby places.
Almost 10% said they'd be going back to their hometown and just 3% planned to go abroad.
Nippon Life also found that on average people had 58,000 yen — or about $370 — to spend on their summer activities.
Online, people were quick to discuss the reasons that people are choosing to stay at home.
Last summer, temperatures in Japan broke new records, and this year could be the hottest in history.
And the weather was one reason that people gave for choosing not to travel and to stay closer to home. One said that spending too long outside in warm weather is too tiring.
Others talked about the cost of travel inside the country, and the fact that many places are too busy, with millions of visitors coming from abroad.
