At Atlas Obscura, we trust our community of curious travelers to point us toward the world’s most special places. With 30,775 places in our Atlas—all contributed by our community and vetted by our journalists—we have a unique window into what travelers truly want to explore.

To identify our Community Country of 2025, we looked at a fascinating ratio: the relationship between people who want to visit places in each country versus those who’ve already been. When far more people want to go than have visited, it signals rising momentum—a destination poised for even greater exploration in the year ahead.

The clear winner? Japan. A remarkable 65.7% of Japanese places on our Atlas have three times as many people who want to go as have actually been there. This “desire ratio” is extraordinary—comparable only to virtually inaccessible sites like the Titanic wreck. No other country with a substantial presence on our Atlas comes close.

This mirrors what’s happening globally: Japan welcomed over 39 million international visitors in 2025, shattering previous records, driven by a historically weak yen making travel more affordable, the world spotlight of Expo 2025 Osaka, and the sustained cultural magnetism of anime and Japanese pop culture.

But for the Atlas Obscura traveler specifically, the pull goes deeper—to the hidden shrines, peculiar museums, eccentric festivals, and wonderfully obscure corners that define what makes Japan endlessly fascinating.

As you plan your trip to Japan, you can see our Japan destination page … and, to be up to the moment, below are the places that had the highest “desire ratio” among Atlas Obscura travelers in 2025.

Want more discoveries like this? Sign up for Atlas Obscura’s daily newsletter and explore something new every day.