Practical Experience and Implications of Sustainable Tourism Development in Japanese National Parks: A Case Study of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park

The General Plan for Establishing National Park System, issued in 2017, marked that the accomplishment of the top-level design for National Park System by the central government of China, in which national park is positioned as a type of natural protected area with most strict conservation. Developing tourism is one of the most important ways to fulfill national park’s functions of environmental education and recreation. In the background that national park is regarded as the most-strict conservation type of natural protected area, it is a huge practical challenge that whether tourism can be developed and how to be developed in national parks of China in the future. National Park System of China is now in its early development stage. Summarizing the mature experence of national park tourism development from other countries is practically of great significance for realizing the sustainable management. Japan is one of the Asian countries with longest history of national park system building, and its national park management has international reputation on the planet. Compared with North America and New Zealand, Japan’s experience is of more value for China, considering Japan is featured by huge population inhabiting narrow land and national parks are usually home to quite a lot of residents. In this paper, the authors, by taking the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park as the case, attempt to cast lights on the practical experience and model of Japanese national park in protecting tourist attraction and environment, building tourism facilities, developing tourist product and also encouraging community involvement with tourism.