What was once a niche obsession among anime fans has turned into a broad Israeli rush to Japan, with even children now showing interest and bar mitzvah trips becoming normal. The story was published on June 18, 2026 and updated on June 19, 2026.
In a small 30-square-meter classroom in Tel Aviv’s Shonzino compound, Sigal Yizraeli has run a Japanese language school since 2008. She says enrollment is now three times higher than in the early years, and the age of students has dropped sharply. “People call me with seven-year-old children who want to start learning Japanese,” she said. “A bar mitzvah trip to Japan is completely acceptable now. What Disneyland used to be, Japan is today.” She said the main drivers are anime, manga, and the boom in trips to Japan, including travelers who return wanting to go back and learn the language.
Official figures show how dramatic the growth has been. Japanese tourism data put Israeli visitors at 14,189 in 2010, falling to 6,931 in 2011. By 2024 the number had jumped to 59,500, in 2025 it surged to more than 93,000, and through May 2026 more than 30,000 visits had already been recorded. The wider tourism market in Japan also hit a record in 2024, with about 37 million visitors, and the government aims for 60 million annually by the end of the decade.
Yuko Higuchi, who has lived in Israel for four years and has taught at Yizraeli’s school over the past year, said Israelis often revisit Japan repeatedly and develop strong local ties. She and her husband, the cultural attaché, run an Instagram account followed by hundreds of Israelis. She also pointed to lower prices, saying Japan is now cheaper than places like New York and Paris because the yen is so weak. Other interviewees described Japan as a place that feels different, playful and culturally absorbing, especially through “Cool Japan,” anime, manga, J-pop, food, fashion and the sense that adults can keep “playing” there. One student, Leah Zohar from Nahariya, said she plans to spend three months in Japan to understand “what is so fascinating” about it.
