Early history The specific origins of contents tourism are unclear, but can be traced back with some stretching of the analogy to the existence of
utamakura in
waka poetry. Even after the middle ages, stories and travel continued to be linked through various media, especially
travelogues. The
meisho ("famous places") in the
Tale of Genji,
Tale of the Heike, the works of
Bashō, and
Ogura Hyakunin Isshu are sometimes associated with the idea of literary contents tourism by scholars.
Postwar The popularity of films and television after
World War II led to a practice of tourism to locations where films and television dramas such as
NHK's
Taiga drama and
asadora were shot, which became a major form of Japanese tourism in the 20th century. This practice included tourism to the sites of
on-location shoots, like
Onomichi after it appeared in
Tokyo Story and
film sets like
Toei Kyoto Studio Park. In 2000, the first Japanese
film commission was established in
Osaka. Since then, many
municipal governments in Japan have been courting producers of films, television dramas, and television commercials to select their regions as filming locations.
Internet Age Since the mid-2000s,
Seichi Junrei, a phrase invented in the Japanese
blogosphere which draws a comparison between anime tourism and pilgrimages to holy sites, has become more popular. Within contents tourism, discussion of
seichi junrei has become an increasingly popular touchstone for mass media. After it gained popularity as a niche grassroots hobby among Japanese bloggers, local governments and chambers of commerce sought out deals with animation producers for
scouting trips, collaborations, and licensing to facilitate an official embracing of
seichi junrei as a means to drive local tourism and
revitalization. The popularity of the Akihabara stage shows of
AKB48 was one of the drivers for the increase in popularity of
Akihabara as a tourist destination. == Journals and publications ==