Abstract: The geographical research on tourism in Japan can be traced back to 1920s. Its development process can be divided into three stages. The period before 1960s is the stage in germination, which is characterized by the scattered studies about skiing and hot springs tourism settlements. The second stage, also a new era, is from 1960s to 1980s. The research subjects involved the metropolitan tourism circle, tourism areas and tourism resources. After 1980s, it pays attention to rethinking of mass tourism and soft tourism, and new tourism was the focus of studies. Geographical research on tourism in Japan is mainly occupied by hot springs, skiing, and other various types of tourism destinations research. Studies of tourist flow, tourism space, new tourism and destination based tourism currently are relatively few. Overall, themes of tourism geographical research in Japan have continuity and the content and practice are closely linked. However, there is a dependency in terms of the basis of theory. In the future, the research will show the diversity of content and research methods based on the new tourism development.