TOKYO – While Singapore was previously just a transit destination for Mrs Rie Tokue, she decided to properly take in the sights and sounds of the Republic for four days this year.

During their visit in May, Mrs Tokue and her husband stayed at the Marina Bay Sands, enjoyed the River Safari, and dined at places like PS Cafe and Plain Vanilla Bakery.

“My husband and I really enjoyed ourselves and feel refreshed from our visit to Singapore,” the 55-year-old marketing director told The Sunday Times, adding that she enjoyed laksa and prawn noodles. “We’ll definitely go back again.”

The first-time visitors are among the 472,742 Japanese arrivals in Singapore from January to July this year, a 7.3 per cent surge compared to the same period last year.

This comes as Singapore is seeing a renaissance in Japanese visitor arrivals after years of tepid interest.

This revival coincides with the Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) launch of the Passion Made Possible campaign in Tokyo in August 2017. In that same year, Japanese visitor arrivals climbed 1.1 per cent to 792,829. This was followed by a 4.6 per cent jump last year to 829,676 visitors, as spending surged 10 per cent to S$1.1 billion.

“In the 1990s, Japan was the number one market for Singapore but over the next 10 to 15 years, the interest level declined as Japanese have many other destinations to go to,” Mr Chang Chee Pey, assistant chief executive of STB’s international group, told The Sunday Times. “This is why the reinvention of the Singapore experience has been so important.”

Among other things, the STB has worked to bring the Singaporean lifestyle closer to the Japanese through food and pop culture.

The STB appointed Japanese leading man Takumi Saitoh, 38, as its tourism ambassador in August 2017. He steps down on Monday (Sept 30).

A new hybrid of orchid, the Dendrobium Saitoh Takumi, was named after the actor-filmmaker last week in honour of his strong advocacy of Singapore as a tourism destination.

Mr Saitoh, who considers Singapore his “second home”, said he will still continue to pursue original cross-border artistic projects.

STB’s efforts have also led to the popular Detective Conan animation series being set outside Japan for the first time in its history.

The Fist Of Blue Sapphire, released in April, was set in Singapore and had topped Japan’s box office for the first half of this year.

It also smashed records for the series, with box office revenue at 918 million yen (S$11.7 million) last month and over 7 million Japanese having seen the film.

The STB also worked with supermarket chain Seijo Ishii to create Singaporean bento meals, including such dishes as soy sauce chicken noodles and nasi lemak, that were sold at its 167 outlets nationwide.

This revival of interest has also paid off with a series of Singapore-related projects that happened without STB’s intervention.

Shiseido introduced a Singapore Sling line for its Maquillage brand of lipsticks, while Kirin has launched a ‘Singapore Style’ tropical-flavoured canned alcoholic beverage.

NMB48, a spin-off of idol group AKB48, released a song about Singapore in 2017, while director Makoto Shinkai, of Kimi No Na Wa (2016) fame, helmed a commercial for construction firm Taisei that was released last year.

Mr Chang said: “We will continue to tell great stories that celebrating the can-do spirit and attitude of our people and country, and how this enables visitors to enjoy and discover passions through the possibilities that Singapore offers.”

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