Foreign students targeted for tours

The Japan Tourism Agency will send some 1,100 foreign students in Japan to tourist spots across the country starting in July to check out the facilities, including hotels and inns, and find new attractions as it tries to lure back tourists scared off by the March 11 catastrophes.

The agency said Friday that it hopes the students will spread word online about the sites to ease concerns about the aftermath of the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami and the radiation-spewing nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture for people abroad looking to visit Japan.

Travel, lodging and other expenses will be jointly shouldered by the government and any facilities that agree to accept the students. The agency plans to send 160 students to the disaster-hit Tohoku region.

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