Stoltzfus and Yamamoto?

The long-running Japanese interest in the Amish is more intuitive than it  sounds, said Brad Igou, co-owner of The Amish Experience.

Igou knows whereof he speaks.

During his college days, he lived three months on an Amish farm in New Providence.

In the 1980s, fascinated by Eastern culture, he spent eight years teaching English in Japan.

Even then, Igou said, the Japanese were keenly aware of things Old Order.

The period coincided with the release of the movie "Witness," which he said further piqued Japanese exploration of Amish identity.

Igou said his hosts were "incredulous that in America, of all places, there would be people who would be actually making a choice to live this way."

Isolated by geography and thousands of years of cultural homogeneity, Igou said, Japanese islanders have an innate curiosity about everything foreign.

They've studied various aspects of Lancaster County and its Plain population — journalist Masaru Yamada, for example, dropped in this past May during a tour of U.S. farms.

At his business in Bird-in-Hand,  Igou said, "We've had film crews here from Japanese TV shows more often than I can count."

The Pennsylvania Tourism Office doesn't track Japanese vacationers, spokesman Michael Chapaloney said.

Mickey Rowley, deputy secretary for tourism, who has focused on opening Pennsylvania to Chinese tourists, said the Asian market remains "massive" despite the sputtering global economy.

Anecdotal evidence points to strong Japanese visitation here.

At the Amish Farm and House in Lancaster, said marketing director Eric Conner, about 40 percent of the clientele hails from abroad. Japanese, Chinese and Korean tourists comprise at least 25 percent of that group.

The influx of emerging Asian middle-class visitors has helped buoy tourism in this lean economy, Conner noted.

Former students sometimes seek Igou out, he said. And, year after year, Japanese pilgrims find their way to The Amish Experience, some by dint of mass transit.

"We've seen them come off the bus with their backpacks," Igou said.