Soon you’ll be able to book a flight to Toyama-Takayama Sushi Airport in Japan.

Overseas tourists have reached record numbers in Japan, but regional areas still find themselves struggling to lure international visitors away from big cities on the well-worn Tokyo-to-Kyoto tourist trail.

Toyama Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast, is one of those regions that remains sadly overlooked, but now it’s throwing the old rulebook out the window in an effort to attract tourists, by giving its airport an unforgettable new nickname to help put it firmly on the map.

Up until now, the local flight terminal has been known as “Toyama Airport”, with the nickname “Toyama Kitokito Airport”. “Kitokito”, a word from the Toyama dialect that means “fresh” or “full of vitality”, was chosen for the nickname in a 2012 public contest to mark the prefecture’s 130th anniversary in 2013.

However, on 8 July, Toyama Governor Hachiro Nitta announced that the airport would receive a new nickname: “Toyama-Takayama Sushi Airport”. Though a name this outrageous might sound like a joke, it really is happening, with the governor saying the new branding aims to raise the prefecture’s profile amongst overseas visitors by highlighting two words that they believe have instant global recognition: “Sushi” and “Takayama”.

▼ Governor Nitta unveiled the new nickname at a press conference earlier today.

Using “sushi” in the airport’s official new nickname will certainly help to capture the attention of travellers unfamiliar with the area, and officials hope the branding will strengthen the message that Toyama is a leading destination for sushi.

The second part of the nickname refers to Takayama, the historic city in neighbouring Gifu Prefecture, which is a more popular destination for overseas tourists. Officials say the inclusion of “Takayama” in the name reflects Toyama Airport’s role as a gateway to the wider Hida Takayama area, helping visitors to explore destinations across prefectural borders.

While details remain unclear on when and how the airport’s sushi moniker will be used, it’s likely to feature in tourism promotions, overseas marketing, and other promotional materials as part of the prefecture’s branding strategy to attract inbound tourists.

Given that the current “富山きときと空港” (“Toyama Kitokito Airport”) nickname appears on the terminal building, a new “富山高山すし空港” (“Toyama-Takayama Sushi Airport”) sign is likely to replace it soon, either in Japanese, English, or perhaps both.

The rebranding comes as Toyama Airport seeks to revive passenger numbers following a decline last fiscal year, its first annual decrease in five years. The airport has faced growing competition from the Hokuriku Shinkansen, which opened direct rail links to Tokyo in 2015, and although it once operated flights to international destinations like Seoul, Shanghai and Dalian, many scheduled overseas routes have been suspended. Flights to Taipei, however, are expected to resume in August after an absence of around six and a half years, so there may be an uptick in passengers in time for the new rebranding.

Hopefully the new name will help to reverse the declining numbers, particularly amongst international visitors who can hop on a direct flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, so more people from overseas can enjoy the hidden charms of the region, including vending machine sushi and a Starbucks branch deemed to be the world’s most beautiful.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/Kyodo, Yomiuri Shimbun, YouTube/東海テレビ ニュースONE
Top image: Wikipedia/Respite
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