Both "ようこそ" (y­ōkoso) and "いらっしゃいませ" (irasshaimase) seem to mean "welcome" but
what are the precise circumstances under which each should be used?

  * "いらっしゃいませ" (irasshaimase) is uttered in unison by all the staff whenever you walk into a restaurant or shop
  * "ようこそ" (y­ōkoso) was used in a recent "Welcome to Japan" advertising campaign

But this is just based on my very limited experience so I'm obviously missing
lots of subtleties and insights.
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word-choice usage keigo greetings
What's the difference between ようこそ and いらっしゃいませ?
ようこそ means welcome but it's mostly used in written context rather than
colloquial. いらっしゃいませ actually means "please come in" (literally) but it often
carries the meaning of welcome, this is why you hear staff saying that
whenever you visit a store, it is mostly colloquial.

In a big event you may also hear ようこそ、いらっしゃいませ used together as well.
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**Y­ōkoso** = Welcome

It's not limited in space or context (written or not). It can be "welcome
home" or "welcome to Japan" or" welcome to try that" or "you're welcome" as in
response to "thank you".

**Irasshaimase** (you have a habit of asking _keigo_ questions!)

is the _sonkeigo_ form of _to be_ and _to come_ ( **いらっしゃる** ) thus giving you
an approximative translation " _thanks for coming_ " or maybe " _It's an honor
for us to have you here_ " :)

Practically:

*If you're invited to some friend's house, they might tell you as you enter:

いらっしゃい、いらっしゃい (roughly = come in, friendly form of the sentence above)

*They could as well tell you something like:

私のうちへようこそ
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The size of the area seems to be the most crucial factor. For example, you can
use ようこそ in welcoming someone to a country, prefecture, city, amusement park,
etc, but いらっしゃいませ is for welcoming someone into an establishment (such as a
restaurant or a store) within that larger area. いらっしゃいませ can also be used to
invite people into an establishment; ようこそ does not have this function. (This
last function explains why ようこそ、いらっしゃいませ is not redundant. ようこそ functions as
"welcome", while いらっしゃいませ functions as "please come in".)
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"ようこそ、いらっしゃいませ" and "ようこそ、お越しやす," its popular Kansai version are a set of
phrases welcoming the guest. "ようこそ" is a variation of "よくこそ" meaning “true /
indeed / rightly.”

よくこそ is used in such way as;

よくこそ言ってくれた - Indeed, you said exactly what I wish to say.

よくこそここまで来た - Really (Thank God), we came a long way up to here.

Though the phrase, “いらっしゃいませ – welcome (your visit)” is heard very often at
retail and food service establishments as you say – I’ve heard it even at a
noodle shop in Taipei recently - , it’s not so common to hear “ようこそ” by its
own on day-to-day social occasions, except the campaign, or TV program title
–“ようこそ! ジャパン,” you mentioned, because ようこそ” implies “feel of welcoming,” but
it doesn’t make a complete sentence by itself.
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