Agency for Cultural Affairs Requests ¥233.5 Billion for Fiscal 2027; Japan Tourism Agency Seeks ¥180 Billion Funded by the International Tourist Tax

The Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Tourism Agency have published materials on their budget requests for fiscal 2027. The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ requested amount is ¥233.5 billion, ¥126.3 billion more than its fiscal 2026 budget of ¥107.3 billion. New programs include support for developing creators and others (¥64.9 billion) and “LED lighting renovation work at each facility” for the National Museum of Art (¥1.2 billion). The Japan Tourism Agency requested ¥180 billion (previous year: ¥130 billion) for measures funded by the International Tourist Tax. Drawing on both agencies’ materials, this article sorts out the amounts related to culture, cultural properties and nighttime tourism, and how the budget is decided.

Agency for Cultural Affairs requests ¥233.5 billion, up ¥126.3 billion from the previous year’s budget

According to the “Overview of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Fiscal 2027 Budget Request,” the agency’s requested amount is ¥233.5 billion, ¥126.3 billion more than the previous year’s budget of ¥107.3 billion, an increase of 117.7%. The document designates ¥89 billion of this as falling under the “Strong and Prosperous Japan” investment framework. It seeks ¥2.4 billion (previous year: ¥1.6 billion) for the redevelopment of the National Theatre, along with a request for which no amount is specified. The figures include amounts allocated in a lump sum to the Digital Agency, and the document also notes that ¥43.1 billion was appropriated in the fiscal 2025 supplementary budget.

Programs funded by the International Tourist Tax are not included in this ¥233.5 billion. The document notes, “In addition, programs funded by the International Tourist Tax are allocated in a lump sum to the Japan Tourism Agency, and their content will be scrutinized in the budget process.” In fiscal 2026, ¥22.4 billion (previous year: ¥8.4 billion) for programs funded by the International Tourist Tax was appropriated separately from the agency’s ¥107.3 billion budget.

Page 1 of the document divides the request into the following five categories. The amounts, with fiscal 2026 budget amounts in parentheses, are as follows.

• Strengthening international presence by promoting human resource development in content-related fields and fostering creative activity in culture and the arts: ¥83.2 billion (¥16.3 billion)

• Cultivating social and economic value through diverse culture and arts: ¥17.2 billion (¥12.0 billion)

• Creating a creative cycle by promoting CBX and improving the environment for activities: ¥1.3 billion (¥1.1 billion)

• Strengthening the foundations that support the promotion of culture and the arts: ¥38.9 billion (¥21.9 billion)

• Preserving and utilizing cultural resources by expanding and promoting the “Cultural Property Craftsmanship Project” and other initiatives: ¥93.6 billion (¥57.4 billion)

In the cultural property category, ¥19.5 billion (¥11.3 billion) is sought for the program to strengthen the preservation and repair of National Treasure and Important Cultural Property buildings, and ¥10.7 billion (¥2.3 billion) for the program to install disaster-prevention facilities at Important Cultural Properties and other sites. Both include amounts under the investment framework. The program to fundamentally strengthen the preservation and repair of National Treasure and Important Cultural Property fine arts and crafts is at ¥1.3 billion (¥1.0 billion), and support for the public display and use of National Treasure and Important Cultural Property fine arts and crafts at ¥40 million (¥10 million).

Five new programs: ¥64.9 billion for developing creators and others, and LED lighting at the National Museum of Art

The programs marked “new” on page 1 of the overview are the following five.

• Support for developing creators and others: ¥64.9 billion (including the investment framework)

• National Museum of Art (Independent Administrative Institution), “Enhancing headquarters functions to strengthen strategic management”: ¥500 million

• National Museum of Art, “LED lighting renovation work at each facility”: ¥1.2 billion

• National Museum of Nature and Science, “Building an exhibition operation system for independently organizing special exhibitions and the like”: ¥100 million

• National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, “Seismic retrofit survey of the Kyoto National Museum Main Building (Meiji Kotokan)”: ¥20 million

In the table of contents, the support for developing creators and others is listed as “Support for developing creators and others (human resource development and reform of the creative base through ‘challenge’),” and a page on anti-piracy measures appears under the same name. The overview on page 1 gives only the program name and amount, without describing the target fields or how the support works. This article does not go into the program’s content.

For the National Museum of Art’s LED lighting, too, page 1 gives only the program name and amount, without specifying the facilities or the work involved. The National Museum of Art operates The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the National Crafts Museum, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, the National Film Archive of Japan, The National Museum of Western Art, the National Museum of Art, Osaka, The National Art Center, Tokyo and others. The revision of admission fees for collection exhibitions was reported in our article on the National Museum of Art’s fee revision.

On lighting, according to the Ministry of the Environment, the manufacture of fluorescent lamps for general lighting is being banned by type under the Act on Preventing Environmental Pollution of Mercury. Compact types are banned from January 1, 2027, and straight-tube and circular types from January 1, 2028 (from January 1, 2027 for those using phosphors based mainly on halophosphate); use, sale and purchase are not banned. The parts of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ documents we were able to read for this article give no reason for the switch to LED.

Among continuing programs, the plan for creating and disseminating media arts is at ¥1.0 billion (¥0.9 billion), the plan for creating and promoting Japanese film at ¥1.7 billion (¥1.3 billion), and the comprehensive support program for the performing arts and the like at ¥9.0 billion (¥8.7 billion). The program to promote cultural tourism in regions centered on cultural tourism hub facilities is at ¥1.1 billion, the same as the previous year. ¥500 million (¥400 million) is sought for the program to promote the strengthening of museum functions.

In the digital field, ¥141 million (¥123 million) is sought to promote the Cultural Heritage Online initiative. According to the program page, in addition to digitally archiving cultural heritage, it will digitally archive detailed records (such as design drawings) of nationally designated cultural properties in preparation for restoration should they be lost. The overall picture of the digitization of cultural properties is laid out in our explainer on the digitization of cultural properties.

Japan Tourism Agency seeks ¥180 billion from the International Tourist Tax; specific programs to be decided in the budget process

According to the “Overview of the Japan Tourism Agency’s Fiscal 2027 Budget Request” (August 2026), the requested amount for measures funded by the International Tourist Tax is ¥180 billion, 1.38 times the previous year’s budget of ¥130 billion. For programs funded from general revenue, ¥10 billion (¥8.3 billion) is sought. The summary table breaks down general-revenue funding as follows (in millions of yen; previous year’s budget in parentheses).

• Balancing strategic inbound visitor attraction with ensuring residents’ quality of life: 6,671 (6,317)

• Expanding domestic and outbound travel: 1,220 (500)

• Strengthening the resilience of tourist destinations and the tourism industry: 1,187 (727)

• Other (ordinary administrative expenses, etc.): 898 (800)

On the tax-funded programs, the document says that “only the requested amount is shown at the budget-request stage, and specific programs will be considered in the budget process based on the above approach.” It adds that they will be decided by the Ministerial Council on the Promotion of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country (headed by the Prime Minister), taking into account the opinions of private-sector experts.

The uses are governed by the Act on the Promotion of International Tourism through Measures Such as Encouraging Visits by Foreign Tourists, and by the “Basic Policy on the Use of the International Tourist Tax” (decided by the Ministerial Council on the Promotion of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country on December 26, 2025). They cover three areas: creating an environment for stress-free, comfortable travel; making it easier to obtain information about Japan’s diverse attractions; and raising satisfaction with local experiences and stays by developing tourism resources that make use of each region’s distinctive culture, nature and the like.

In fiscal 2026, the ¥130 billion in tax revenue was allocated to measures across ministries and agencies. In the document’s list, the third area includes ¥22.4 billion for the Agency for Cultural Affairs, ¥17.8 billion for the Ministry of the Environment, ¥15.3 billion for the Japan Tourism Agency and ¥5.8 billion for the Imperial Household Agency. The tax-funded programs are allocated in a lump sum to the Japan Tourism Agency and then transferred to the relevant ministries and agencies for implementation. The document’s graph of budget trends is annotated “International Tourist Tax increase (July 2026).”

Nighttime cultural-property experiences and the tourist tax: how the money was used in fiscal 2026 Agency for Cultural Affairs programs

The Japan Tourism Agency’s document lists measures from the Basic Plan for the Promotion of a Tourism-Oriented Country (approved by the Cabinet on March 27, 2026) in a “list of main measures,” and includes “promoting early-morning and nighttime experiences of cultural properties and the like” under “measures against excessive congestion.” No amount is given for this item. The main text of the Basic Plan gives its aims as “dispersing demand, adding high value to cultural properties and the like, and revitalizing the nighttime economy and the like.”

In fiscal 2026, the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ programs funded by the tourist tax (allocated in a lump sum to the Japan Tourism Agency) totaled ¥22,388 million (previous year: ¥8,417 million). The agency’s “Overview of the Fiscal 2026 Agency for Cultural Affairs Budget [Japan Tourism Agency Lump-Sum Allocation]” includes programs that highlight nighttime use.

• Forming a contemporary art district through collection use in partnership between museums (¥200 million, new): uses the collections of the National Museum of Art, Osaka and the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka to promote Nakanoshima as a contemporary art district. One item is “open-space renovation and nighttime illumination,” and the document says it will “light up monuments by world-renowned architects and strengthen attendance at evening openings through photogenic spatial staging.”

• Expanding cultural content through the Japan Cultural Expo (¥4,500 million; previous year ¥4,020 million): the program description includes “enriching night culture.” It consists of commissioned projects to create new cultural content (about 17 projects at ¥100 million each) and subsidies for creating region-specific cultural content and the like (about 80 projects at ¥30 million each).

• Program to Promote the Use of Attractive Cultural Properties Nationwide (¥850 million; previous year ¥774 million): supports the creation of high-value content using nationally designated cultural properties and the like. According to Hoshino Resorts, “PRISON BY NIGHT : Light & Echoes” at the Nara Prison Museum, beginning December 4, 2026, uses this subsidy.

• Developing the storage and utilization functions of the National Center for Media Arts (tentative name) (¥170 million): with the national center as a hub, it will advance the storage and preservation of original manga artwork, animation cels and the like, as well as their use through loans and other means. The previous year’s budget is shown as “-” in the table at the start of the document and as ¥63 million on the program page.

The tourist-tax-funded programs for fiscal 2027 are not shown at the budget-request stage. Whether these programs will continue, and at what scale, will be decided in the budget process. National and local policies on nighttime tourism are laid out in our article on the nighttime economy.

Editor’s perspective

Within what we checked for this article, the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ programs highlighting nighttime use were found on the tourist-tax side (the Japan Tourism Agency lump-sum allocation), outside the agency’s own request. It was this framework that accommodated the nighttime illumination in Nakanoshima and the Japan Cultural Expo’s “night culture” in fiscal 2026, and its fiscal 2027 content will not be shown until the budget is compiled. For local governments and businesses planning nighttime events, this means they cannot confirm at the budget-request stage whether these programs will continue or at what scale.

The agency’s own request, on the other hand, includes programs to improve the settings for exhibitions: LED lighting at the National Museum of Art, building a system for the National Museum of Nature and Science to organize its own special exhibitions, and a seismic retrofit survey of the Kyoto National Museum’s Main Building. Only the program names and amounts have been shown so far; how the facilities and exhibitions will change will depend on the outcome of the budget process and announcements by each institution.

Data sources and methodology

• Agency for Cultural Affairs, “Overview of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Fiscal 2027 Budget Request”: posted on the agency’s budget page. Neither the document nor the page gives a publication date; we used the version viewed on October 22, 2026. Amounts are in units of ¥100 million, with fiscal 2026 budget amounts in parentheses. It includes amounts allocated in a lump sum to the Digital Agency and notes that figures may not add up due to rounding. This article uses page 1 (the summary), the table of contents and the cultural property program pages (pages 3–23), and does not cover the individual program pages that follow.

• Japan Tourism Agency, “Overview of the Japan Tourism Agency’s Fiscal 2027 Budget Request”: the cover is dated August 2026, and the agency’s budget page says it was posted on August 28, 2026. The summary table is in millions of yen and notes that totals may not match due to rounding. Only the requested amount is shown for tourist-tax funding; the amounts by ministry and agency are the fiscal 2026 allocations.

• Agency for Cultural Affairs, “Overview of the Fiscal 2026 Agency for Cultural Affairs Budget” and “Overview of the Fiscal 2026 Agency for Cultural Affairs Budget [Japan Tourism Agency Lump-Sum Allocation]”: fiscal 2026 initial budget. The former gives fiscal 2025 initial budget amounts in parentheses and notes that ¥22.4 billion (¥8.4 billion) in International Tourist Tax-funded programs is appropriated separately. The latter is in millions of yen, with previous-year budget amounts in parentheses. The previous-year budget for the National Center for Media Arts (tentative name) differs between the opening table and the program page.

• Basic Plan for the Promotion of a Tourism-Oriented Country: approved by the Cabinet on March 27, 2026; covers fiscal 2026–2030. Quotations are from the “measures against excessive congestion” section of the main text.

• Ban on the manufacture of fluorescent lamps: Ministry of the Environment page (no update date shown; viewed October 22, 2026).

Frequently asked questions

When are the budget request amounts finalized?

Budget requests are the amounts at the stage when each ministry and agency makes its request; the final amounts are decided in the budget process. As a reference from the previous year, the “decision overview” for the fiscal 2026 budget on the Japan Tourism Agency’s budget page is dated December 26, 2025. Specific tourist-tax-funded programs are to be decided by the Ministerial Council on the Promotion of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country, taking into account the opinions of private-sector experts.

What will the support for developing creators and others be used for?

Page 1 of the overview shows only the program name, the amount (¥64.9 billion, new) and a mark indicating that it includes the “Strong and Prosperous Japan” investment framework. The table of contents lists it as “Support for developing creators and others (human resource development and reform of the creative base through ‘challenge’).” This article does not cover the target fields or the method of support.

What national subsidies are available for nighttime use of cultural properties?

In fiscal 2026, the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Program to Promote the Use of Attractive Cultural Properties Nationwide (¥850 million) and other programs were funded by the tourist tax. The programs and amounts for fiscal 2027 will be decided in the budget process. Check the specific procedures with the relevant office.

*Top image: Agency for Cultural Affairs Kyoto office building, April 2023 (source: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan Standard Terms of Use [Version 2.0], from Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on official announcements and public materials from each agency and organizer (as of October 22, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team