Japan Climbs Global Meetings Rankings as Association Events Spread Across 70 Cities

TOKYO, Japan — Japan hosted 491 international and regional association meetings in 2025, a 15 percent increase from 428 the previous year, as meetings activity continued to spread beyond the country’s major convention destinations.

The performance moved Japan to sixth place in the global country rankings while retaining its position as Asia Pacific’s leading destination for the fourth consecutive year, according to ICCA’s GlobeWatch 2025 Country and City Rankings Report, released in May 2026 and reported by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).

The geographical spread of meetings was particularly notable. More than 70 Japanese cities hosted at least one international meeting during 2025, while 19 Japanese cities ranked among the top 85 Asia Pacific destinations hosting five or more meetings.

Alongside established meetings hubs such as Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama, international association events were held in regional destinations including Matsue, Nara, Kagoshima, Kumamoto and Takamatsu.

Japan remained well ahead of other leading Asia Pacific destinations in the ICCA rankings, with China recording 326 meetings, followed by the Republic of Korea with 286 and Australia with 241.

Several Japanese cities have also secured major international association congresses for the coming years. Kyoto will host the 44th Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress and the 20th World Congress of Intensive and Critical Care in 2029, while Nara has been selected to host the 32nd Congress of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology in 2028.

Kyoto is also hosting three major medical congresses in September 2026: the ISDE World Congress, the Japanese Cancer Association Annual Meeting and the SICOT Orthopaedic World Congress.

JNTO said it will continue working with convention bureaus and international meeting organisers to attract international meetings to destinations across Japan, with the country targeting a place among the top five in ICCA’s global rankings.