FROM THE FOUNDER
Money earned from what makes this country worth visiting, kept in the hands of the people who live here. What TABICO stands by.
What this country has,
kept in the hands of the people who live here.
I love the country I grew up in. The smell of a good dashi broth, streets that change their face with the season, and people who will pour a stranger a drink the first time they meet. The more I travelled abroad, the more I realised how little of that is ordinary. What stays with you after a trip is rarely the scenery — it is the people.
More people visit Japan every year now. Towns have their energy back, and travellers are reaching places that were never on the map. I think that is straightforwardly good news.
But two things have come to worry me in this work.
The first is how much simply never gets explained. How to behave at a shrine, how to eat, where a camera is welcome and where it is not. Again and again I have seen people get it wrong with no ill intent at all — nobody had told them. If those of us doing the guiding stay quiet, this country’s culture becomes mere backdrop. Explaining it is part of the job, not an extra.
The second is that the money visitors bring does not stay where it was earned. In towns that should have been busier than ever, shops I knew have closed and been replaced by operators with deeper pockets. I have watched it happen repeatedly. Money made from what makes Japan worth visiting should find its way back to the people who made it that way. On this I will not bend.
So TABICO never became a company that only guides. We meet visitors face to face on our tours, and we also work with the businesses who receive them — running their social media, helping them get ready to host. The neighbourhood restaurant, the workshop, the small inn, each able to welcome guests from abroad under their own steam. Only when it reaches that far does any of it mean anything.
That the people who come here leave thinking of Japan as somewhere to return to. And that the lives of the people who welcomed them are a little better for it. Only with both does this work hold together.
TABICO LLC, Founder
Mihiro Ono
FOUNDER PROFILE
PROFILE
I write every article on this site myself. On tours, I take visitors to Japan into shops and restaurants; at the same time, I help those same kinds of businesses bring visitors in. What I write about is what I have seen from both sides.
| Name | Mihiro Ono |
|---|---|
| Role | Founder, TABICO LLC (established 2025) |
| Education | I studied architecture at university and graduate school, researching productivity and skills training in the construction industry. I recorded carpenters at work minute by minute to compare experienced hands with newcomers, studied vocational schools that train carpenters, and presented a paper at the Building Production Symposium. In the lab, I also helped design and deliver furniture joined entirely without screws. In my first year, I joined a regional revitalization program on Shodoshima and helped make a wooden barrel at a soy sauce brewery — it got me thinking about the joy of making things, and about the challenges facing rural Japan. |
| In English | Since graduate school, I have run the YouTube channel "Ono in Japan", explaining in English what visitors should know before they arrive — how to change money, how to use a Suica, and more. As of October 2026, the channel has about 21,800 subscribers, and its most-watched video has about 632,000 views. I also ran my university's official YouTube, Instagram and X accounts for its public relations office. |
| Guiding | Viewers of the channel began asking me to show them around, and that is how I started guiding. Today I run Japan Trails, a walking tour service for visitors to Japan, and guide the tours myself. |
| Guests from | The United States, the UK, India, Australia, Greece, Germany, Malaysia and elsewhere |
| Marketing support | Google Maps listings (local search), Instagram management, listings on experience booking sites (OTAs), website production, Google Ads setup, and introduction videos in three languages. See the case studies |
| Topics I write about | Google Maps and review replies, social media, experience booking sites, English menus and customer service, and payments and tax-free sales for visitors All articles (in Japanese) |
| Accounts | YouTube TikTok Facebook |
YOUTUBE
Saying the things nobody tells you — in English
The things I mentioned above — the ones nobody has told anyone — I talk about on a channel called "Ono in Japan", in English. How to change money, how to use a Suica, what you need at immigration. All of it is what I would want to know before flying in.
1 / 82
Contact
Work with us
Talk to us about your project. It is free, and you do not need to know where to start.
Service guide (Japanese)
Want to look things over with your team first, or still gathering information? Download our service guide (in Japanese).