A critical review of wildlife tourism research in Japan

Wildlife tourism offers potential for conserving wildlife, yet research is geographically concentrated in specific regions and undertaken in English. Adding insights from under-reporting countries can inform global conservation efforts. The aim of this review is to critically examine wildlife tourism literature to discuss the current status and future directions of Japanese wildlife tourism research. We systematically searched for peer-reviewed academic articles written in Japanese and English using the following databases: CiNii for Japanese articles and Web of Sciences, EBSCOHost and SCOPUS for English articles. Twenty-eight relevant articles were identified but the term ‘wildlife tourism’ was rarely used in Japanese literature, indicating that this is a relatively novel concept in Japan. The articles were categorised into six of the seven research themes identified from existing textbooks on wildlife tourism: (1) ecological impacts and sustainability (eight studies); (2) wildlife tourists (seven studies); (3) community engagement in wildlife tourism (one study); (4) wildlife tourism management and policy (five studies); (5) learning and interpretation (one study); and (6) economic impacts (six studies). Wildlife tourism research is at an early stage in Japan and will require more multidisciplinary approaches in future by including biodiversity and animal ethics issues, wildlife interpretation quality, understanding tourist expectations and awareness of Japan’s nature tourism offerings. This review broadens wildlife tourism scholarship to include under-explored non-Western context. It highlighted the importance of integrating both ecological and cultural considerations for wildlife tourism research.