Casual mention elicits enthusiastic response from commonly overlooked tourist destination.
Japan has become one of the world’s top tourist destinations, welcoming a record-breaking 42.7 million international visitors in 2025, a 15.8-percent increase from 2024, and on track to break the record this year. While this is great news for big cities like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, where tourists tend to spend most of their time and money, there are 44 other prefectures in Japan that are crying out for international visitors, and one of the most in need is Tottori Prefecture.
▼ No hoardes of tourists here.
Home to roughly 530,000-540,000 people, Tottori is the least populous prefecture in Japan. Compared to Tokyo’s roughly 14 million residents, Tottori has about 4 percent of Tokyo’s population, and given its distance from major urban centres, it ranks in the bottom tier for international tourist numbers.
▼ The trip to Tottori takes over five hours by train from Tokyo, using the fastest Shinkansen on the initial leg of the journey.
▼ Alternatively, it’s about three hours by train from Kyoto Station.
Despite the lack of tourists, Tottori has a wealth of tourist attractions, and one person who knows about its charms is Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway. On a recent trip to Japan to promote her new film, The Devil Wears Prada 2, released here on 1 May, Hathaway appeared on the popular weekend morning television program King’s Brunch, where she was asked where in Japan she would like to visit. She replied by saying she would like to visit Tottori, mentioning that she likes the sea, the beaches and the sand dunes.
▼ These are three things Tottori is famous for.
After the show aired on 6 May, it didn’t take long for news of Hathaway’s comments to reach Tottori. Within days, official Tottori-based government sites jumped on the PR opportunity, posting photos, videos and messages on social media.
On 9 May, the governor of Tottori, Shinji Hirai, extended an official invitation for Hathaway to visit, promising that a sand dune sculpture would be made in her likeness if she were to take them up on the offer.
Tottori prefecture’s official Instagram account reissued the governor’s invitation, and even included a cute illustration of him in the last slide.
Local tourism boards took to Twitter to share news of Tottori’s mention by the world-famous actress.
▼ This tweet says: “Even Hollywood stars are captivated by Tottori Prefecture”.
Cities within the prefecture soon got in on the act, with the Sakaminato Tourism Association joining the chorus on 11 June.
▼ “We would be delighted if you could also visit Sakaiminato City.”
If there was an Academy Award for Best Social Media Post, it would go to Yonago City, who went all out with its invitation, creating a clever skit inspired by The Devil Wears Prada franchise, complete with lookalike characters.
As that skit shows, many wonders await in Tottori, and there’s even an exclusive set of manhole covers featuring Sandshrew, who, as a nod to the famous sand dunes, is the prefecture’s tourism ambassador Pokémon.
While Hathaway is yet to respond to the invitations, we have our fingers crossed that she’ll make the journey to Tottori sometime in the near future. If she needs advice on how to get there, she could always call on former U.S. late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien, who put Tottori on the map back in 2018, when he visited Conan Town to collect 3 trillion yen from the mayor.
Sources: Instagram/@tottoriawesome, Instagram/@totorealpavilion, Twitter/@tottori_guide, San-in Chuo Shimbun
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Insert images: Pakutaso, ©SoraNews24
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