As you leave the train station in Himeji, a medium-sized Japanese city in Hyogo Prefecture about 80 kilometers from Osaka, one thing immediately stands out.
Himeji Castle, a centuries-old fortress once home to Japan’s great unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi, is the best-preserved example of such structures from the Warring States period, many of which were destroyed in air raids during World War II. In 1993, the castle became Japan’s first UNESCO World Heritage site — to readers of a different generation, it may be better known as the location of Tiger Tanaka’s training school in the 1967 James Bond film “You Only Live Twice.”
Recently, Himeji Castle has attracted attention for a different reason. Hideyasu Kiyomoto, the mayor of the city of half a million, made international headlines last month when he suggested that foreign tourists should pay more—about four times more—than the ¥1,000 ($6.20) the castle currently charges for admission.
