Ninja steps up as Japan's next big tourism hope

TOKYO - Japan is turning to those hooded samurai-era acrobatic spies known as ninja to woo tourism.

The Japan Ninja Council, a government-backed organization of scholars, tourism groups and businesses, said Wednesday that it's starting a Ninja Academy to train people in the art of ninja, and building a new museum in Tokyo devoted to ninja, set to open in 2018.

"The art of ninja is made up of various elements, such as combat, survival techniques and astronomy," Jinichi Kawakami, known as "the last ninja" and a master of the Koga ninja school, told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. "We hope this will appeal to people all over the world."