The Trade Journal

The commercial mechanics - payment and cancellation terms, how to verify who you are contracting, and what to expect from a Japanese ground operator before you sign anything.

One working guide per source market: how that market books, what its clients expect on pacing and dining, and where itineraries most often go wrong. Each pairs with the market page for that country.

Japan runs on allocation. These cover the windows that are contracted months ahead - ski, Lunar New Year, cherry blossom and autumn - and how to plan an itinerary around the weather rather than in spite of it.

The detail that decides whether a programme works on the day: halal, vegetarian, vegan and Jain handling, which in Japan determines the restaurant list rather than the plate.

Half-days, routing and what a city can actually carry inside a fixed itinerary.