Japan’s Tohoku Region: What Kind of Trip Would You Like to Take?
Tohoku is a region in the northern part of Honshu, Japan’s main island. It consists of six prefectures: Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, and Fukushima.
Cherry blossoms in spring and festivals in summer. Autumn leaves and snowy winter landscapes. From hot spring towns in the mountains to coastlines along the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, the scenery changes with the season and the place.
You might join the bustle of a festival or relax in a hot spring. The journey that comes to mind when you think of Tohoku may be different for everyone.
If you have been here before, think of the hotels or other places you stayed. If you are planning a visit, imagine somewhere you would like to stay.
Take a moment to picture your own journey.
How have Tohoku’s hotels and ryokan—traditional Japanese inns—changed through the pandemic?
We will compare guest nights in 2019, before the pandemic; 2021, during it; and 2025, after it, through a map and a data card.
As a way to get to know Tohoku, shall we explore together how its hotels and ryokan have changed?
Explore Hotels and Ryokan in Tohoku on the Map
Select a prefecture on the map to see total guest nights, the share accounted for by foreign nationals, establishments, guest rooms, room occupancy, and other figures. Switch between 2019, 2021, and 2025 to compare changes through the pandemic.
You can also search by prefecture name, use voice search, or move to other regions using the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Start with a prefecture you have visited or somewhere you would like to go.
How Have Guest Nights Changed in Tohoku?
Total guest nights in Tohoku’s six prefectures fell from 43,699,740 in 2019 to 29,015,590 in 2021. They then rose to 38,379,350 in 2025.
The recovery rate for 2025 compared with 2019 was 87.8%. Guest nights in Tohoku as a whole rebounded substantially, but remained below the pre-pandemic level.
Guest nights for foreign nationals exceeded the 2019 level, and their share of total guest nights increased. However, that share remained lower than the figure for Japan as a whole.
Across Tohoku’s six prefectures, both the number of hotels and ryokan and the number of guest rooms were lower in fiscal 2024 than in fiscal 2019.
Switch between the data card’s tabs to see the breakdown of guest nights, establishments and guest rooms, and licenses issued and closures across the lodging industry as a whole. Comparing the card with the map reveals differences between the figures for Tohoku as a whole and those for each prefecture.
What I Noticed While Making the Map
Even within Tohoku, the patterns of recovery differed. In Aomori, both guest nights and room occupancy exceeded their pre-pandemic levels, while in Miyagi, room occupancy was above its pre-pandemic level. In Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, and Fukushima, both guest nights and room occupancy remained below those levels.
The share of guest nights accounted for by foreign nationals appears low across the region. Yet guest nights for foreign nationals exceeded pre-pandemic levels in all six prefectures. The picture changes depending on whether you look at their share or the number of guest nights.
From places you remember to places you would like to visit next.
Shall we explore how hotels and ryokan in Tohoku have changed, moving between the map and the data card?
Sources: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Report on Public Health Administration and Services; Japan Tourism Agency, Accommodation Survey.
- Accommodation figures cover the calendar years 2019, 2021, and 2025 (January–December).
- Figures for establishments, guest rooms, licenses issued, and closures cover fiscal years 2019, 2021, and 2024.
- Guest nights count each guest for each night of their stay. One person staying for three nights counts as three guest nights.
- The maps and data cards use the Japanese labels “日本人” (“Japanese”) and “外国人” (“foreign nationals”) to reflect the statistical categories. Guest nights for Japanese nationals are calculated by subtracting guest nights for foreign nationals from total guest nights.
- The recovery rate is calculated as total guest nights in 2025 ÷ total guest nights in 2019 × 100.