Oku-noto no Aenokoto is an agricultural ritual transmitted from generation to generation by the rice farmers of the Noto Peninsula, which projects from Ishikawa prefecture in the centre of Japan s main island, Honshu.

UNESCO: Culture

Hiroshi Saito, a tourism-promotion official in Ishikawa, said his prefecture saw a 45% increase in the number of foreign visitors to its famous Kenrokuen garden for the first three months of this year, compared with the same period a year earlier.

WSJ: Tourists Check Out a Newly Affordable Japan