The Hip Side of Japan the Tourists Havent Figured Out Yet

When Japan closed its borders during the COVID-19 pandemic, expats and longtime friends Hillary Hewins and Blake Piper began spending weekends in Atami, a small seaside city about a 40-minute bullet train ride from their home in Tokyo. Once a popular destination for holidaymakers following World War II, Atami's prosperity waned after the bubble burst in the early 1990s.

Hotel revenues fell by around 25% and many buildings stood abandoned. By 2011, visitation had dropped by 55% from its peak, leading to a decline in the local population from 50,000 residents to approximately 30,000 today. Hewins and Piper found beauty in Atami's faded glamour, investing in vacant houses or "akiya" and converting them into rental homes.

They are now planning to renovate two dilapidated buildings into a boutique hotel, aiming to restore them to their former glory.

This trend of revitalizing old buildings is part of a broader movement embracing "Showa retro" – a style that pays homage to mid-century modernism from the 1960s to the 1980s, characterized by warm colors, tactile fabrics, and bright signage. The revival isn't just about nostalgia; it represents a return to more analog human connections during a loneliness epidemic.

In 2025, Japan saw one in every three deaths among individuals found alone in their homes, known as kodokushi. This trend also reflects a desire to preserve unique architectural styles, contrasting with the global homogenization of third-space venues like coffee shops.

Showa retro's distinctive aesthetic is about excess and uniqueness, a far cry from the minimalist washitsu rooms featuring tatami flooring and paper screens. The trend's influence extends to music, with Tokyo-based producer Jung Kyung-ho, known as Night Tempo, creating Showa Groove remixes of "city pop," a genre popularized in Japan during the 1970s.

These spaces, like traditional tea-drinking shops or "kissaten," provide an intimate setting for socializing and offer a refuge from automation and urban sprawl, fostering connections in a society plagued by an aging population and low birthrate. With an average of 4 square meters per person in Tokyo, public spaces are scarce. This renewed interest in Showa retro stems from a sense of light exoticism – a fascination with how others lived and what they experienced in the recent past, before the advent of modern technologies.

This phenomenon is attracting both domestic and international tourists, with record-breaking inbound travel numbers reaching 42.7 million in 2025, up over 16% from the previous year.