> Japan has managed to multiply its tourist figures in 2023, making a quantum leap from three to 25 million tourists compared to 2022, according to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).
Well duh, the country was de facto closed for majority of 2022.
No way??? You're telling me ***THAT'S*** why I got fired from my last 7/11? Because I didn't open the doors??? This changes everything! 300 pages of sudoku for me.
Yeah absolute garbage. I live in Kyoto right by Kiyomizudera and if they are restricting tourists I haven’t seen it. Same ‘ Japan Buckles Under Ungodly Tourist Numbers’, ‘ Mt Fuji Lawson Debacle’ and “Guarding Gion Geisha from Gregarious Tourists’ headlines. No new information, just regurgitated headlines from other 2 cent online news outlets. I made this up bc they at least sound good. Maybe I have to start writing articles myself
I think there’s a backlog of people who had plans to go into 2020 (like me) and then had to postpone.
So 2024 will probably be insane, but I bet by 2025/26 it’ll level out.
Let’s not forget the pent-up demand from the Covid lockdown years. It will get worse before it gets better. AFAIK Chinese tourists haven’t been unleashed yet.
They're one of the big issues right now. Illegal chinese only taxis are everywhere. Walking through the streets of harajuku and shinjuku i felt like i heard more chinese than english, and i heard several people complaining about chinese specifically
I've dealt with them in Japan, New Zealand, Canada.
Always an unhygienic, loud, and obnoxious bunch.
God forbid you sit next to them in a restaurant, because for the love of them they can't chew with their mouth closed.
I about had it when I was getting off the elevator a couple of days ago and 2 Chinese women bum-rushed the elevator to get on, blocking the door so that I couldn’t get off. One almost fell into me like I was invisible. I said super loudly, “EXCUSE ME.” And they started giggling. Luckily, I was able to get off before the elevator door closed, but good lord are they rude and follow 0 social etiquette.
Went to Fushimi Inari Taisha with my boyfriend. Couldn’t get a third of the way up the mountain because they were trying to get their photo shoots in the Tori gates every five metres.
Yeah I kind of think a lot of the hectic feeling of the situation is because there are people who have been sitting around in a pot of money for like 3 years praying for the moment they could finally head to Japan to spend it. There are also a lot of people that saw the exchange rate and went "well it's now or never".
I was there a few days ago, and it seemed about the same as when I visited during covid times (when I lived near there).
I hear a lot of korean and mandarin, but doesn't seem to be any westerners.
I cycle downtown every day. It's night and day compared to Covid. Between teleworking and tourism bans, downtown was a ghost town during the pandemic. Now it's packed with cars, taxis and pedestrians. Lots more kids than usual, with tourist families visiting.
Chinese tourists and residents are in full force. Permanent residency applications take over a year now likely because so many chinese are applying after being locked in their own country in covid
I have Chinese friends who hate mainland Chinese. There are generally extremely rude and lack any form of respect to local customs. They would brush against you when walking and wouldn’t even have the courtesy to apologise.
I was in Osaka a few days ago and couldn’t believe I saw a table of 3 Chinese tourists who left the conveyor belt sushi restaurant with about 15-20 plates of plates full of rice left behind as they ate all the fish on top. It’s pure rude, disrespectful, and wasteful. If they only wanted the fish they should have gone to a place that served sashimi. Not sure if they were cheap but they didn’t care. They also had no issue cutting in front of us. I’ve seen a lot more tourists from India, Philippines, Thailand and etc this time than ever prior to Covid. Namba is no longer a place I wanna go back to.
Well, sounds like Korea as well. Was on the r/korea sub and the sentiment was it is part of their culture so deal with it.
Won't be surprised the Chinese tourists had similar cultural norms due to history in the past 80 years.
God this thread is obnoxious.
Im chinese australian and in tokyo rn and yes there are alot of chinese tourist all over japan.
But firstly many of them are hong kongers and taiwanese.
In fact i think i’ve heard cantonese more than mandarin.
Jesus christ the projection is real of the stereotypical mainland chinese tourist 10 years ago.
Honestly they’re very well behaved these days and i havent seen any cut into line or act obnoxiously
Don’t people speak Cantonese in Guangdong though? A whole lot more Cantonese speaker live in the mainland than Hong Kong. I haven’t been to Japan in years but I live In China. Rudeness from people varies but it’s also not as bad as people on this thread are making it seem.
Yes ppl speak cantonese in many parts of guandong.
I was at shibuya sky yesterday evening and 90% was chinese speaking.
Did not see any bad behavior.
People queued for photos and elevators and followed instructions fine.
P
Just make tourist attractions out of random villages all around Japan, spread them around and make them spend money on some random stuff. It’s not going to last forever, so might as well make the best of it
If a tourist spot doesn't want to handle foreigners, how can random villages handle them? Language/communication barrier in Japan is a well know facts for tourists, that's why they prefer group tour or tourists spots in the first place.
There's Lots of places in Japan that were Showa-era tourism boom towns that are largely abandoned today, including beautiful places I've been to in Nagano, or Lake Chuzenji.
The people there are very happy to see tourists, unlike a few of the locals I've met in Tokyo and Kyoto who were a bit grumpy about overtourism.
Considering the last time I went to Lake Chuzenji the road was so jammed up the bus ride from Nikkō to there would have taken 3 hours (normally takes 50 minutes) I don't think Lake Chuzenji is that underrated.
When did you go?
Last time I went prior to the pandemic in June it was basically a ghost town. Tons of collapsed buildings, old Showa swan boats all rusted on the beach, only one restaurant open...
This year in May. Now you could say it could have been the Golden Week but it wouldn't have explained the three hour traffic jam up and down the Irohazaka if it were underrated. The main street in Nikkō was so jammed it was faster to walk from the station to the equally crowded temples in Nikkō than to take the bus. And that was already after Tobu has taken an axe to the train schedule down from Kinugawa meaning there was no way to get to Nikkō early even if you take the first shuttle bus out of the hotel.
I also didn't think Lake Chuzenji was that deserted back when I visited in June 2019.
I can testify that some are up and running I don't know if the Commodore Perry tourists trap counts but what they have setup Shimoda was interesting to see. Also went to see a few castle ruin sites around in the country side and it was nice not having to deal with a press of body's like at the more famous locations. Everyone seemed to be fine with the solo American walking around using his phone to google to translate signs.
It's more than language - it's a lack of good food, lack of wifi or connectivity, lack of accommodation and a lack of attractions of any sort.
You go out to some of these places and all they have is a soba restaurant that's only open for 30mins every second tuesday and there isn't a single cafe or break spot anywhere. Nothing is signposted, and the local "attractions" are little more than a patch of dirt with a half-nice view and some forgotten history that could be something if half an effort was made to make it touristy.
There are some great places to go and things to do, which are just poorly advertised or organized - some of them are very well built because they are relics of the bubble and have good access, great parking, lots of space, but are just so far off the trail and so depressing no one is going to go there.
Mushy mountain potato with soy sauce and vinegar? It's a rare delicacy! I especially like another poverty dish "wild ginger with shaved blocks of dried fish"
There is already a significant amount of domestic tourism in japan. Encouraging foreign tourists to visit these areas would alleviate overpopulated cities while not losing the revenue. It would also greatly benefit smaller towns that have been on the decline.
Control tourism in the main population centers. Make better transport infrastructure to and from tourist spots that don’t interfere too much with local transport (looking at you Kyoto). It’s really not that hard and some cities absolutely did it right (looking at you Hiroshima).
Kyoto is really a prime example on how to do things wrong. They bled money on things that were not smart investments in their infrastructure.
E.g. the station, cool building, absolutely appalling access on the taxi side. They spent years creating this mess.
E.g. Shijō, why are cars even allowed there? Make it a one way at least.
Most of the town looks dead and the rest is cracking under the tourist pressure.
I feel like they've had years if not decades to come up with solutions, but all they've managed to do is gather around and complain about tourists and tourism.
It feels like they just add some new anti-tourist measure every year and observe how it affects the next year of visitors, instead of making any meaningful changes.
As a tour guide that has to spend several days there once or twice a month, I really hope Kyoto's wish comes true and tourism ceases to exist there. So sick of going there.
Every village in Japan already does this for domestic tourism but, generally speaking, foreigners who just spent thousands to get to Japan want to see the famous stuff they’ve heard of and not the tiny little shamisen museum in some inaka town
You’re without a doubt partly right, but I also feel as though that’s what people want to see because that’s all they know. The smaller tourist attractions just need some good PR IMO.
Another issue is generally just getting to the place. As a resident I would love go to inaka, but doing so is more expensive than going somewhere else. For most tourists why would they spend more money for less to do? With a car it would be a different story, but for a tourist they'd need to apply for an IDP, deal with tolls, lesrn the signage, and then if coming from certain countries, also drive on the opposite side of the road in the opposite side of a car.
Yeah the problem isn’t just the number of tourists, it’s that the millions of tourists are going to the same couple places - Tokyo Kyoto Osaka for the most part, I get it it’s an easy trip to plan taking the bullet train each way but there are plenty of other cities with lots of history and culture that could benefit from some tourism, instead of countless people crammed into the same couple streets.
Furano, Biei, Aomori, Onomichi, Yakushima…etc. to name a few easy recommendations for summer(not just summer obviously). Also check if there’s any fireworks festival or just any festivals during your visit. You want to aim for that. You travel for experience and you get that in those festivals. Can still be crowded during events yes but so is basically everywhere remotely worth going in Japan.
A lot of the good summer alternatives depend on your willingness to rent a car. Lots to do in northern Japan and in the alps, but it’s easier to drive.
we did Awaji island for a few days on our last trip and it was great. But the Rental car was 100 necessary.
Unironically I think this would kind of shift people around. There are shows like yuru camp that basically act as advertising campaigns for various attractions around Japan and sometimes they genuinely make me want to go places.
it got weebs like me going to (well planning to) Takayama, Gifu.
I'll go to Lake Hamana as well.
Though I guess they're probably already a tourist destination even before they made a cute girls anime there,
and I have friends to visit near Lake Hamana as well
(though they'll probably not have time off work so I'll explore by myself)
I visited Lake Hamana on my first visit to Japan last December and I had absolutely no regrets. Stayed at Bentenjima and had a great time just taking in the sights and relaxing. Visited as many of the Yuru Camp locations featured as I can as well.
But looking at the sunset through the toori gate in winter ? Now that...that's something you would not want to miss.
Edit : You may want to consider getting a ride around as well as public transport around lake hamana can be kinda hard to get.
I mean a safe, clean, interesting country with a weak Yen is going to attract a lot of interest. I do feel bad for locals who feel overwhelmed by it though. Hopefully the government can find some solutions to keep tourism for being so disruptive while still allowing it to bring in all the economic benefits of having people visit.
Tourism is a win for almost everybody.
It causes annoyances - sure. But overall Japan needs all of the help it can get.
Maybe some portion of those foreigners love it so much they end up moving there and, imagine, having kids.
isn't this the nightmare of many Japanese people? I have a Japanese neighbor who has said that Japanese people don't enjoy foreigners moving there. Genuinely curious.
Yep absolutely.
However….
Japan does not exactly have a lot of options when their population is declining at the rate it is. They better get with the times and start being more accepting or these issues will only get worse
It's a pretty serious problem for the coming decades both short and long term and is already a major issue in Japan.
An aging population with not enough young people to replace them means higher public expenditure for social service programs like health care, elderly care and pensions rises but the tax base to pay for these services diminishes.
With a limited number of immigrants, there's not enough labor to meet demand especially health care workers to care for the elderly. This means decreased economic activity, and trouble for Japan's financial sector.
Income inequality is also a growing issue in Japan between generations. A smaller share of the population is being forced to shoulder the rising costs of social services for the elderly.
There are other countries where this is happening too, but it is especially bad in Japan due to their exceptionally low birth rate, long life expectancy and very low immigration coupled with deep rooted xenophobia.
Yeah fine fine. Infinite growth is the solution to everything. Just import more people from third world countries, the CEOs need more potential customers and wage slaves so they can buy a new yacht.
This is such an exhausting and frankly incorrect way to look at the world. And yes - I’m vividly aware of your sarcasm.
Just accept you know little to nothing and move on. No reason to comment further
I live in a country that's being overwhelmed by our immigration policy, we're at the opposite end of the spectrum here in Canada.
Do I know nothing? Certainly I'm no certified expert on the subject. However I live the reality in which our government has been suppressing our wages for years, reducing our access to public services, limiting housing availability, increasing general hostility as incompatible cultures clash and fail to integrate, all for the sake of "growth" and the economy.
There's an increasing majority that is against these immigration policies because everyone's quality of life is being reduced across the board as more people flood into the country than we can support. Talk to any Canadian, anywhere in the country, and they'll tell you that things are bleak.
From my own perspective here, I would prefer a declining population to an endlessly growing one.
The human population will continue to shrink forever at this point, you're delusional if you don't see how civilisation will collapse when no one wants kids.
> Tourists in front of the Kiyomizudera shrine in Kyoto, Japan, known for its geisha.
I dunno if I should call this out as ChatGPT or tell the writer to let ChatGPT proofread for them. Jesus, what a mess.
If I’m a microcosm of why Japan is being inundated with tourists it’s because through the later part of COVID- so mid/late 2021- I watched a lot of YouTube videos and documentaries on places and things to see and do in Japan and always planned on going there when I could. I think a lot of people did that.
After service charge its like %7-8 of the total price. There is no tax free in London and VAT is %20, twice of Japan and people still go there as well.
How do you account for the number of visitors in 2019 then (approximately 32M)? The yen was around ¥108/110 to the USD and had been fairly stable for several years.
There have been more visitors almost every month this year compared with same month in 2019. We've hit 3 million visitors for three months in a row which has literally never happened before.
Sure…but the numbers were steadily trending upwards in 2018 and 2019 until Covid hit and everything came to a screeching halt. Had nothing to do with the exchange rate.
I'd you look at the nationality of tourists you can see a huge shift in where tourists come from. Asia and Europe have similar trends but there are huge spikes in the visits of North American tourists.
365,000 in March 2024 vs 219,000 in 2019.
Hmm, I wonder if the dollar-yen exchange rate has anything to do with it?
Never said it isn’t a factor. A lot of travel trends have shifted post-Covid, Chinese inbound tourism was massive but their numbers aren’t anything like pre-COVID.
Actually, I realized I've been wrong the entire time.
I was looking at numbers from May 2024 at 3.04 million when there were some tens of thousands, possibly 100 thousands, missing from the statistics.
We're really seeing unprecedented numbers of tourists this year. And it will only get worse.
https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/since2003_visitor_arrivals_May_2024.pdf
Yup. I feel that a large part of it is TikTok, Instagram, et. al. constantly pushing Japan-related content to the masses. Before, interest in Japan was a niche --- so in general, only the small handful of people with a deep enough interest in the country, culture, language, etc. were spending a bunch of money coming here. Then "You NEED to come to Japan. Japan is SO amazing" type content started absolutely blowing up on social media. And suddenly Japan was now trendy and mainstream. And with the currency in collapse, everyone who wants to come here is coming.
So that is how we are now getting people who have no understanding of the culture or language flocking in so they can get their Instagram shot in front of the convenience store.
It really does suck that it’s like this. My anime artist twin sons have dreamt of coming to Japan since they were 3-years of age. Now, one of them has a rare neurological condition and I brought him here before it was too late. Getting him around in a wheelchair and trying avoid huge masses of people in places everyone comes here for is quite the challenge. For now, we are chilling in Okinawa. Any suggestions for our 10-12 day visit to the tri-state regions of Tokyo?
It's never gone over 3 million a month until now.
May 2024 it was 3,040,000
May 2019 it was 2,773,000
Even before corona the peak was 2,991,000.
So you are wrong.
https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/since2003_visitor_arrivals_May_2024.pdf
I think the big change was Chinese tourist. It wasn't that long ago where Chinese citizens had to get an exit visa to travel and they had to jump through a lot of hoops to go anywhere. Once many of those limits were lifted, the hordes began to travel and Japan was a major destination.
I've been to Japan almost a dozen times. The change was pretty significant from before that change and after. Many of my friends in Japan who worked in places inundated by the massive increase in Chinese tourist all told me the same thing. It was really difficult dealing with the cultural differences, but at the same time. Chinese tourist were/are spending money like crazy. Not just buying one items, but many of the same items in quantity.
I've only been once, and the yen was weak as a kitten, although I didn't know that when I'd planned it--it was coincidence. Still, it was great. That year, they'd had the highest number of tourists in history, which I assume has now been surpassed.
I have a coworker who once did a big backpacking trip thing around Asia in probably the '80s? When he was younger, I don't know. The one country he didn't go to...Japan. It was completely impossible for a young person trying to backpack around SEA back in the height of the economic boom.
It's an insanely attractive country to travel to--as someone noted elsewhere, safe as hell, clean...and it has amazing sights and unbelievable food and so on.
They are going to have to deal.
Japan was having fast tourism growth before Covid leading to the Olympics. The yen wasn’t particularly weak then either. The last time I remember the yen being weak was in 2006 being around 120. Tourist weren’t flooding to the country to buy shit and vacation.
I live in the UK and London is rammed with tourists at all times. Maybe lots of Japanese people aren't yet accustomed to this but they will be in time.
Yeah, but they’re still considered tourists or “day-trippers”. Japan does have a lot of day-trippers from China come in by cruise ships and Koreans by ferry into Kyushu, also short flight. They’re basically doing the same thing, but for skin care and healthcare products.
Ferry/plane tickets cost a lot more than *walking* across the border, which is entirely feasible from eg most of Geneva (which is surrounded on 3 sides by France).
Depreciating currency, safe, modern public transportation. Compared to say the US, strong currency, crime every other place, unsafe public transport & v expensive car rentals, high restaurant tips….
[Except Japan isn't even in the top 10 of most visited countries while the US is the 3rd most visited country in 2024*.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings)
*The link is for 2023 not 2024.
Higher cost of living and crime rates, unsafe public transport, tips, etc. can be said about pretty much all major US cities especially in comparison to Japan.
Americans always claim their country is so big and diverse but most of their cities are filled with the same boring retail chains and unfashionable overweight people so I don’t think it’s anymore diverse than Japan or any other major developed countries.
If you look at a place like the United Kingdom, it's much smaller than the US in size but the accent changes significantly even if you only travel for 100 miles. China, a country similar in size to the US, has different dialects of Chinese that are mutually unintelligible to each other. In America on the other hand, especially the West, accents are pretty universal. It is often difficult to tell if someone is from San Francisco, Denver or Cleveland for example.
Any person from those cities would slap you from saying that. America and its accents is not what you see in youtube videos, and thats a north american thing anyway
Also you didn’t address Japan at all? The whole reason I commented??
I don't think Japan is more diverse than the United States but the accents are not as universal. If you travel 500 km from Tokyo to Osaka, the accent changes significantly. Anyone proficient in Japanese can instantly tell if someone is from Tokyo or Kansai just by hearing the accent. Now, Denver and St Louis are 1,000 km+ apart. Can most Americans really tell the difference between Denver and St. Louis accents? Based on my experience living in the States for a decade, I would think the answer is no.
Yes, they can actually.
Edit: Hell even the AAVE is different from state to state. This gotta be the most European ass shit ive seen all day
Edit 2: Hell the accent changes within the same state.
Yeah, Japan isn't very big, only as big as the East Coast of the US end to end.
If you overlay Japan on the US, Sapporo (northernmost 1mill+ city) lines up with Boston, Massachusetts, and Kagoshima (southernmost 1 mill+ city) lines up with Jacksonville, Florida.
EDIT:
53% of the population lives in the three biggest cities (Tokyo, Keihanshin, Nagoya, 65 million), and Tokyo to Keihanshin is pretty much Boston to slightly past Philly, so the best comparison to the dense parts of Japan would probably be the North East Corridor (which happens to have just over 50 million people).
In hindsight, the [North East Corridor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis) is probably the best comparison to make with [Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiheiy%C5%8D_Belt). Similar population and area.
The USA is 3.8 million sq miles. Japan is like 150,000 sq miles. Japan is 93 percent the size of California. Even if you took away Hawaii and Alaska, there are still 47 more states to travel through in the USA.
I guess you can't blanket compare the USA to Japan, but you can compare the East Coast to Japan. OP's description
> strong currency, crime every other place, unsafe public transport & v expensive car rentals, high restaurant tips…
probably fits with most if not all the East Coast.
But you probably know more than I do as to how accurate of a portrayal of the US east coast that description is, I've never even been there.
I mean, oddly enough, a lot of the northeast of the USA has ok public transit. America doesn’t have great cross country transit for a few reasons. 1) lobbying by capitalists who want people to drive and or fly, 2) how our cities are set up and are meant for cars, but also 3) our country is so large that I’d rather sit for 5 hours in a plane flying from LA to NYC vs sitting all day in a train. I also don’t really get the argument about crime. A statistic I found said around 165 million people (more than the population of Japan) visited the USA last year. The most crime a normal person would face is traffic accidents and theft, but that’ll happen in Japan, too. Do dumb things happen like gun violence? Yes, but you are unlikely to be a target of random gun violence here. Most US citizens have never experienced a gun being discharged in public. If I had to levy any criticism about Japan as a destination for travel, I’d say that they have a lack of things for tourists to do which may lead to some of the problems. It sucks, but if you want tourists to go places, you’re gonna have to offer way more stuff in English over time.
>victim of its own success
>one town erected a 1.8 meter fence to prevent tourists from snapping photos of Mt. Fuji
The horror. The absolute horror.
The biggest problem Japan has with tourists is that it just blows up every non-news worthy event when a tourist is involved. The majority of "foreigners causing problems" news would never make even a local paper if it were a Japanese person doing it.
Last night, I was watching NHL News and they said that the numbers are Re halfway the amount for pre pandemic numbers. As others have say, the numbers are high due to being practically close for 3 years. I give it 2 years so they go back to normal.
The issue is that the other tourist hotspots that people like to cite, such as France, have been tourist hotspots forever. Whereas tourism here is up over 400% since the 2000s. We went from literally nobody coming here to
suddenly everyone and their mom flocking in. That’s why Japan seems a bit more sensitive to it.
I just came back from spending 9 days in Japan. Spoke very little Japanese, was respectful of the people and the culture, tried not to be like a typical American tourist, and my family and I had a great time. I can't wait to go back. They were some of the nicest people I've met, and that's comparing it to the Phillipines, who are also known as the nicest people you'll ever meet worldwide.
We are here now…I agree with your sentiment. 😇
My young adult son is wheelchair-bound; any places you felt were overflowing with tourists that you suggest we avoid?
I go there to see my wife's family. No time to do touristy stuff and I stay in one of the many endless residential area near Tokyo where nothing happens. Boring but at least I avoid the crowds. ;)
For years I have heard that immigration will ruin Japan. But tourism got there first. In fact, the tourists are making immigrants here look pretty good if you ask me.
I’d say it’s more the local government policies that are the problem. Of course locals being hateful is bad, but even tourists can see that some places should have better tourism infrastructure.
There’s no such thing as reject tourism. It happens, it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna keep happening, and the numbers will likely continue going up for a while.
I’m part Japanese and was born in Nagoya. I’m not a Japanese citizen anymore bc I live in America now. In my comment, I was referring to tourists who act out and disrespect Japan and its people. That’s why I called them weirdos.
Highest problem is, that 96% of the country is full of people don't want tourism and most times only Tokio and a bit of nara, kioto or osaka can handle a bit of.
With a system that spread people more over the land and make offerings to stay Elsewhere would be nice.
Also don't like tourism but made lot of advertising and Japanese influencers shouting out that Japan is open and best time visiting now and than having stuff like no foreign enter and more charging.
Next move they want flood the world with anime and manga more than ever, but maybe we should Boykott that too.
Even people who live there 5 year + with permanent resident make videos of leaving lately.
Without, they will face Russia, china and NK alone.
Have fun.
> Japan has managed to multiply its tourist figures in 2023, making a quantum leap from three to 25 million tourists compared to 2022, according to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). Well duh, the country was de facto closed for majority of 2022.
What a fucking stupid click bait article
Store manages to increase customers by opening its doors.
No way??? You're telling me ***THAT'S*** why I got fired from my last 7/11? Because I didn't open the doors??? This changes everything! 300 pages of sudoku for me.
It’s El Pais, what did you expect?
Spanish?
Socialist propaganda, what else.
Bro has to be a right wing loser
Yeah absolute garbage. I live in Kyoto right by Kiyomizudera and if they are restricting tourists I haven’t seen it. Same ‘ Japan Buckles Under Ungodly Tourist Numbers’, ‘ Mt Fuji Lawson Debacle’ and “Guarding Gion Geisha from Gregarious Tourists’ headlines. No new information, just regurgitated headlines from other 2 cent online news outlets. I made this up bc they at least sound good. Maybe I have to start writing articles myself
And we are STILL NOT BACK to pre-pandemic levels of 30 million, yet you will undoubtedly have people yelling it is more than ever.
We haven't even hit summer yet and we're at 11 million people. We coukd well do hit 30 million by the end of the year.
2023 was just short of 2019 levels, and surpassed them in the later months. 2024 will be a new record.
I think there’s a backlog of people who had plans to go into 2020 (like me) and then had to postpone. So 2024 will probably be insane, but I bet by 2025/26 it’ll level out.
Also the exchange rate right now makes it even more attractive coming from many other countries
Honestly it’s pretty funny to see Japan and other places act like they forgot what life was three years ago.
>making a quantum leap When it's so big, it's so small
Let’s not forget the pent-up demand from the Covid lockdown years. It will get worse before it gets better. AFAIK Chinese tourists haven’t been unleashed yet.
Chinese tourist count has recovered to 80% of the pre Covid peak according to JNTO.
Considering pre covid was 30 million per year, on average everything is at 80%
Iirc the housing crash and economic slump in china has restricted the number of travellers
Still swamped with them back home in Singapore.
Another big factor is people who grew up loving Japanese media are now adults with the disposable income to actually visit. (It's me, I'm the adult)
There was a lot of Chinese when I went last week. Not even gonna talk about how they love cutting lines even in airport lines.
They're one of the big issues right now. Illegal chinese only taxis are everywhere. Walking through the streets of harajuku and shinjuku i felt like i heard more chinese than english, and i heard several people complaining about chinese specifically
Seems like they're everywhere in Kyoto, being obnoxious.
Hands down, some of the most unpleasant and rude tourists I’ve ever dealt with.
I've dealt with them in Japan, New Zealand, Canada. Always an unhygienic, loud, and obnoxious bunch. God forbid you sit next to them in a restaurant, because for the love of them they can't chew with their mouth closed.
I about had it when I was getting off the elevator a couple of days ago and 2 Chinese women bum-rushed the elevator to get on, blocking the door so that I couldn’t get off. One almost fell into me like I was invisible. I said super loudly, “EXCUSE ME.” And they started giggling. Luckily, I was able to get off before the elevator door closed, but good lord are they rude and follow 0 social etiquette.
Went to Fushimi Inari Taisha with my boyfriend. Couldn’t get a third of the way up the mountain because they were trying to get their photo shoots in the Tori gates every five metres.
Yeah I kind of think a lot of the hectic feeling of the situation is because there are people who have been sitting around in a pot of money for like 3 years praying for the moment they could finally head to Japan to spend it. There are also a lot of people that saw the exchange rate and went "well it's now or never".
Have you been to Ginza or Hokkaido?
Ginza was wall to wall Chinese tourists last week. The Ginza Uniqlo store was filled to the brim.
The sidewalks in downtown Sapporo are packed.
I was there a few days ago, and it seemed about the same as when I visited during covid times (when I lived near there). I hear a lot of korean and mandarin, but doesn't seem to be any westerners.
I cycle downtown every day. It's night and day compared to Covid. Between teleworking and tourism bans, downtown was a ghost town during the pandemic. Now it's packed with cars, taxis and pedestrians. Lots more kids than usual, with tourist families visiting.
Where can we go in Japan that has a lower population of Chinese tourists…tourists of any kind?
Anywhere that's not a big popular city.
Chinese tourists and residents are in full force. Permanent residency applications take over a year now likely because so many chinese are applying after being locked in their own country in covid
I have Chinese friends who hate mainland Chinese. There are generally extremely rude and lack any form of respect to local customs. They would brush against you when walking and wouldn’t even have the courtesy to apologise.
I was in Osaka a few days ago and couldn’t believe I saw a table of 3 Chinese tourists who left the conveyor belt sushi restaurant with about 15-20 plates of plates full of rice left behind as they ate all the fish on top. It’s pure rude, disrespectful, and wasteful. If they only wanted the fish they should have gone to a place that served sashimi. Not sure if they were cheap but they didn’t care. They also had no issue cutting in front of us. I’ve seen a lot more tourists from India, Philippines, Thailand and etc this time than ever prior to Covid. Namba is no longer a place I wanna go back to.
Well, sounds like Korea as well. Was on the r/korea sub and the sentiment was it is part of their culture so deal with it. Won't be surprised the Chinese tourists had similar cultural norms due to history in the past 80 years.
I don't think it would be unreasonable for Japan to put more restrictions in place. I agree that things will otherwise get worse.
That’s crazy considering the most tourists we’ve seen have been Chinese 🤯
Yeah they aren’t traveling here anymore, they are immigrating here instead
God this thread is obnoxious. Im chinese australian and in tokyo rn and yes there are alot of chinese tourist all over japan. But firstly many of them are hong kongers and taiwanese. In fact i think i’ve heard cantonese more than mandarin. Jesus christ the projection is real of the stereotypical mainland chinese tourist 10 years ago. Honestly they’re very well behaved these days and i havent seen any cut into line or act obnoxiously
Don’t people speak Cantonese in Guangdong though? A whole lot more Cantonese speaker live in the mainland than Hong Kong. I haven’t been to Japan in years but I live In China. Rudeness from people varies but it’s also not as bad as people on this thread are making it seem.
Yes ppl speak cantonese in many parts of guandong. I was at shibuya sky yesterday evening and 90% was chinese speaking. Did not see any bad behavior. People queued for photos and elevators and followed instructions fine. P
Just make tourist attractions out of random villages all around Japan, spread them around and make them spend money on some random stuff. It’s not going to last forever, so might as well make the best of it
If a tourist spot doesn't want to handle foreigners, how can random villages handle them? Language/communication barrier in Japan is a well know facts for tourists, that's why they prefer group tour or tourists spots in the first place.
There's Lots of places in Japan that were Showa-era tourism boom towns that are largely abandoned today, including beautiful places I've been to in Nagano, or Lake Chuzenji. The people there are very happy to see tourists, unlike a few of the locals I've met in Tokyo and Kyoto who were a bit grumpy about overtourism.
Considering the last time I went to Lake Chuzenji the road was so jammed up the bus ride from Nikkō to there would have taken 3 hours (normally takes 50 minutes) I don't think Lake Chuzenji is that underrated.
When did you go? Last time I went prior to the pandemic in June it was basically a ghost town. Tons of collapsed buildings, old Showa swan boats all rusted on the beach, only one restaurant open...
This year in May. Now you could say it could have been the Golden Week but it wouldn't have explained the three hour traffic jam up and down the Irohazaka if it were underrated. The main street in Nikkō was so jammed it was faster to walk from the station to the equally crowded temples in Nikkō than to take the bus. And that was already after Tobu has taken an axe to the train schedule down from Kinugawa meaning there was no way to get to Nikkō early even if you take the first shuttle bus out of the hotel. I also didn't think Lake Chuzenji was that deserted back when I visited in June 2019.
Exactly, it's time for all those insane bubble attractions to make a comeback
I can testify that some are up and running I don't know if the Commodore Perry tourists trap counts but what they have setup Shimoda was interesting to see. Also went to see a few castle ruin sites around in the country side and it was nice not having to deal with a press of body's like at the more famous locations. Everyone seemed to be fine with the solo American walking around using his phone to google to translate signs.
It's more than language - it's a lack of good food, lack of wifi or connectivity, lack of accommodation and a lack of attractions of any sort. You go out to some of these places and all they have is a soba restaurant that's only open for 30mins every second tuesday and there isn't a single cafe or break spot anywhere. Nothing is signposted, and the local "attractions" are little more than a patch of dirt with a half-nice view and some forgotten history that could be something if half an effort was made to make it touristy. There are some great places to go and things to do, which are just poorly advertised or organized - some of them are very well built because they are relics of the bubble and have good access, great parking, lots of space, but are just so far off the trail and so depressing no one is going to go there.
This is completely unfair. There are also local mountain potato dishes in soy sauce and vinegar flavor.
Mushy mountain potato with soy sauce and vinegar? It's a rare delicacy! I especially like another poverty dish "wild ginger with shaved blocks of dried fish"
Yummmm!!!😍
There is already a significant amount of domestic tourism in japan. Encouraging foreign tourists to visit these areas would alleviate overpopulated cities while not losing the revenue. It would also greatly benefit smaller towns that have been on the decline.
Google translator... just download the library for the language and you are set. Most people can type even if they cant speak english.
Control tourism in the main population centers. Make better transport infrastructure to and from tourist spots that don’t interfere too much with local transport (looking at you Kyoto). It’s really not that hard and some cities absolutely did it right (looking at you Hiroshima).
Kyoto is really a prime example on how to do things wrong. They bled money on things that were not smart investments in their infrastructure. E.g. the station, cool building, absolutely appalling access on the taxi side. They spent years creating this mess. E.g. Shijō, why are cars even allowed there? Make it a one way at least. Most of the town looks dead and the rest is cracking under the tourist pressure.
I feel like they've had years if not decades to come up with solutions, but all they've managed to do is gather around and complain about tourists and tourism. It feels like they just add some new anti-tourist measure every year and observe how it affects the next year of visitors, instead of making any meaningful changes. As a tour guide that has to spend several days there once or twice a month, I really hope Kyoto's wish comes true and tourism ceases to exist there. So sick of going there.
The hop on hop off they put in is pretty half assed too. Not nearly enough buses. The top level is uncovered and become unusable for half the year.
Every village in Japan already does this for domestic tourism but, generally speaking, foreigners who just spent thousands to get to Japan want to see the famous stuff they’ve heard of and not the tiny little shamisen museum in some inaka town
You’re without a doubt partly right, but I also feel as though that’s what people want to see because that’s all they know. The smaller tourist attractions just need some good PR IMO.
Another issue is generally just getting to the place. As a resident I would love go to inaka, but doing so is more expensive than going somewhere else. For most tourists why would they spend more money for less to do? With a car it would be a different story, but for a tourist they'd need to apply for an IDP, deal with tolls, lesrn the signage, and then if coming from certain countries, also drive on the opposite side of the road in the opposite side of a car.
Yeah the problem isn’t just the number of tourists, it’s that the millions of tourists are going to the same couple places - Tokyo Kyoto Osaka for the most part, I get it it’s an easy trip to plan taking the bullet train each way but there are plenty of other cities with lots of history and culture that could benefit from some tourism, instead of countless people crammed into the same couple streets.
Shhh don’t tell people about Kyushu
I have posted in Japan travel looking for good summer alternatives to the big three. I received very few suggestions.
Thought Reddit would just be like "don't go to Japan in the summer"
Furano, Biei, Aomori, Onomichi, Yakushima…etc. to name a few easy recommendations for summer(not just summer obviously). Also check if there’s any fireworks festival or just any festivals during your visit. You want to aim for that. You travel for experience and you get that in those festivals. Can still be crowded during events yes but so is basically everywhere remotely worth going in Japan.
A lot of the good summer alternatives depend on your willingness to rent a car. Lots to do in northern Japan and in the alps, but it’s easier to drive. we did Awaji island for a few days on our last trip and it was great. But the Rental car was 100 necessary.
Just make cute girls anime in other cities a la Zombieland Saga
Unironically I think this would kind of shift people around. There are shows like yuru camp that basically act as advertising campaigns for various attractions around Japan and sometimes they genuinely make me want to go places.
it got weebs like me going to (well planning to) Takayama, Gifu. I'll go to Lake Hamana as well. Though I guess they're probably already a tourist destination even before they made a cute girls anime there, and I have friends to visit near Lake Hamana as well (though they'll probably not have time off work so I'll explore by myself)
I visited Lake Hamana on my first visit to Japan last December and I had absolutely no regrets. Stayed at Bentenjima and had a great time just taking in the sights and relaxing. Visited as many of the Yuru Camp locations featured as I can as well. But looking at the sunset through the toori gate in winter ? Now that...that's something you would not want to miss. Edit : You may want to consider getting a ride around as well as public transport around lake hamana can be kinda hard to get.
Yurucamp?
Hyouka, Yuru camp
The yen fell even further yesterday. It will be a tourist destination as long as it's cheap, and there's no sign of that stopping.
Atami could use more tourists
The problem is the population outside the 3 major city, the locals won’t be able to handle large amount of tourists
I mean a safe, clean, interesting country with a weak Yen is going to attract a lot of interest. I do feel bad for locals who feel overwhelmed by it though. Hopefully the government can find some solutions to keep tourism for being so disruptive while still allowing it to bring in all the economic benefits of having people visit.
Tourism is a win for almost everybody. It causes annoyances - sure. But overall Japan needs all of the help it can get. Maybe some portion of those foreigners love it so much they end up moving there and, imagine, having kids.
isn't this the nightmare of many Japanese people? I have a Japanese neighbor who has said that Japanese people don't enjoy foreigners moving there. Genuinely curious.
Yep absolutely. However…. Japan does not exactly have a lot of options when their population is declining at the rate it is. They better get with the times and start being more accepting or these issues will only get worse
I dream of the day people stop acting like population decline is the end of the world.
It's a pretty serious problem for the coming decades both short and long term and is already a major issue in Japan. An aging population with not enough young people to replace them means higher public expenditure for social service programs like health care, elderly care and pensions rises but the tax base to pay for these services diminishes. With a limited number of immigrants, there's not enough labor to meet demand especially health care workers to care for the elderly. This means decreased economic activity, and trouble for Japan's financial sector. Income inequality is also a growing issue in Japan between generations. A smaller share of the population is being forced to shoulder the rising costs of social services for the elderly. There are other countries where this is happening too, but it is especially bad in Japan due to their exceptionally low birth rate, long life expectancy and very low immigration coupled with deep rooted xenophobia.
Yeah fine fine. Infinite growth is the solution to everything. Just import more people from third world countries, the CEOs need more potential customers and wage slaves so they can buy a new yacht.
This is such an exhausting and frankly incorrect way to look at the world. And yes - I’m vividly aware of your sarcasm. Just accept you know little to nothing and move on. No reason to comment further
I live in a country that's being overwhelmed by our immigration policy, we're at the opposite end of the spectrum here in Canada. Do I know nothing? Certainly I'm no certified expert on the subject. However I live the reality in which our government has been suppressing our wages for years, reducing our access to public services, limiting housing availability, increasing general hostility as incompatible cultures clash and fail to integrate, all for the sake of "growth" and the economy. There's an increasing majority that is against these immigration policies because everyone's quality of life is being reduced across the board as more people flood into the country than we can support. Talk to any Canadian, anywhere in the country, and they'll tell you that things are bleak. From my own perspective here, I would prefer a declining population to an endlessly growing one.
Immigration won’t do shit if the country isn’t good enough to keep people.
The human population will continue to shrink forever at this point, you're delusional if you don't see how civilisation will collapse when no one wants kids.
DJ Khaled: Suffering from Success
> Tourists in front of the Kiyomizudera shrine in Kyoto, Japan, known for its geisha. I dunno if I should call this out as ChatGPT or tell the writer to let ChatGPT proofread for them. Jesus, what a mess.
"We want your money, but not you. You're dirty and foreign." - Japanese Tourism Board
Very similar sentiments of Thailand…
If I’m a microcosm of why Japan is being inundated with tourists it’s because through the later part of COVID- so mid/late 2021- I watched a lot of YouTube videos and documentaries on places and things to see and do in Japan and always planned on going there when I could. I think a lot of people did that.
Maybe getting rid of the tax-free is a start.
After service charge its like %7-8 of the total price. There is no tax free in London and VAT is %20, twice of Japan and people still go there as well.
A start to much less tourism income in a struggling economy?
The biggest reason for the big surge in tourists is the Japanese yen. That's it. It's not a victim of success. It's a victim of cheap currency.
How do you account for the number of visitors in 2019 then (approximately 32M)? The yen was around ¥108/110 to the USD and had been fairly stable for several years.
There have been more visitors almost every month this year compared with same month in 2019. We've hit 3 million visitors for three months in a row which has literally never happened before.
Sure…but the numbers were steadily trending upwards in 2018 and 2019 until Covid hit and everything came to a screeching halt. Had nothing to do with the exchange rate.
I'd you look at the nationality of tourists you can see a huge shift in where tourists come from. Asia and Europe have similar trends but there are huge spikes in the visits of North American tourists. 365,000 in March 2024 vs 219,000 in 2019. Hmm, I wonder if the dollar-yen exchange rate has anything to do with it?
Never said it isn’t a factor. A lot of travel trends have shifted post-Covid, Chinese inbound tourism was massive but their numbers aren’t anything like pre-COVID.
Actually, I realized I've been wrong the entire time. I was looking at numbers from May 2024 at 3.04 million when there were some tens of thousands, possibly 100 thousands, missing from the statistics. We're really seeing unprecedented numbers of tourists this year. And it will only get worse. https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/since2003_visitor_arrivals_May_2024.pdf
It will only get better. It’s so amazing how popular Japan is today. Hopefully this popularity is only just beginning to grow.
Instagram has more to do with than than the weak yen
Biggest isn't it. Desire to visit Japan is pretty common. Weak yen just makes that desire a reality, but the origin of the desire isn't the weak yen.
Yup. I feel that a large part of it is TikTok, Instagram, et. al. constantly pushing Japan-related content to the masses. Before, interest in Japan was a niche --- so in general, only the small handful of people with a deep enough interest in the country, culture, language, etc. were spending a bunch of money coming here. Then "You NEED to come to Japan. Japan is SO amazing" type content started absolutely blowing up on social media. And suddenly Japan was now trendy and mainstream. And with the currency in collapse, everyone who wants to come here is coming. So that is how we are now getting people who have no understanding of the culture or language flocking in so they can get their Instagram shot in front of the convenience store.
It really does suck that it’s like this. My anime artist twin sons have dreamt of coming to Japan since they were 3-years of age. Now, one of them has a rare neurological condition and I brought him here before it was too late. Getting him around in a wheelchair and trying avoid huge masses of people in places everyone comes here for is quite the challenge. For now, we are chilling in Okinawa. Any suggestions for our 10-12 day visit to the tri-state regions of Tokyo?
The weak yen helps turning it into reality. Therefore it is the weak yen.
That and there was a backlog from COVID.
You do realize that the number of tourists now is about what it was right before Covid hit. Back then yen was still at a normal 110yen~ range….
It's never gone over 3 million a month until now. May 2024 it was 3,040,000 May 2019 it was 2,773,000 Even before corona the peak was 2,991,000. So you are wrong. https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/since2003_visitor_arrivals_May_2024.pdf
You just proved my point with ur statistics. 3mil a month now, and 2.9m before the cheap yen.
I haven't. It's increased and will keep increasing due to the weak yen.
Ya I do agree that if the cheap yen continues, it’ll definitely keep increasing. Good luck to us all.
I think the big change was Chinese tourist. It wasn't that long ago where Chinese citizens had to get an exit visa to travel and they had to jump through a lot of hoops to go anywhere. Once many of those limits were lifted, the hordes began to travel and Japan was a major destination. I've been to Japan almost a dozen times. The change was pretty significant from before that change and after. Many of my friends in Japan who worked in places inundated by the massive increase in Chinese tourist all told me the same thing. It was really difficult dealing with the cultural differences, but at the same time. Chinese tourist were/are spending money like crazy. Not just buying one items, but many of the same items in quantity.
I've only been once, and the yen was weak as a kitten, although I didn't know that when I'd planned it--it was coincidence. Still, it was great. That year, they'd had the highest number of tourists in history, which I assume has now been surpassed. I have a coworker who once did a big backpacking trip thing around Asia in probably the '80s? When he was younger, I don't know. The one country he didn't go to...Japan. It was completely impossible for a young person trying to backpack around SEA back in the height of the economic boom. It's an insanely attractive country to travel to--as someone noted elsewhere, safe as hell, clean...and it has amazing sights and unbelievable food and so on. They are going to have to deal.
Japan was having fast tourism growth before Covid leading to the Olympics. The yen wasn’t particularly weak then either. The last time I remember the yen being weak was in 2006 being around 120. Tourist weren’t flooding to the country to buy shit and vacation.
Another clickbait headline to rile up the nationalists and last samurais of Reddit
160.30
Japan is the 14th most visited country in the world. It really doesn’t have that many tourists.
I live in the UK and London is rammed with tourists at all times. Maybe lots of Japanese people aren't yet accustomed to this but they will be in time.
Literally! We are swarmed and yet we deal with it.
Native New Yorker here…we feel your pain.
France had 100m last year. Their population also a lot lower than Japans.
France has land borders though. A lot of those "tourists" are things like Swiss people hopping across the border for cheaper groceries.
Yeah, but they’re still considered tourists or “day-trippers”. Japan does have a lot of day-trippers from China come in by cruise ships and Koreans by ferry into Kyushu, also short flight. They’re basically doing the same thing, but for skin care and healthcare products.
Ferry/plane tickets cost a lot more than *walking* across the border, which is entirely feasible from eg most of Geneva (which is surrounded on 3 sides by France).
That's surprising
Depreciating currency, safe, modern public transportation. Compared to say the US, strong currency, crime every other place, unsafe public transport & v expensive car rentals, high restaurant tips….
[Except Japan isn't even in the top 10 of most visited countries while the US is the 3rd most visited country in 2024*.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings) *The link is for 2023 not 2024.
Girl. You cannot blanket compare the entire USA to a tiny country like Japan. Every country has its own problems.
Japan is actually not that tiny, it’s bigger than Britain and Germany…
Compared to the United States it is small (which is what the original poster did).
~~Yeah, Japan isn't very big, only as big as the East Coast end to end.~~ replied to the wrong comment
Higher cost of living and crime rates, unsafe public transport, tips, etc. can be said about pretty much all major US cities especially in comparison to Japan. Americans always claim their country is so big and diverse but most of their cities are filled with the same boring retail chains and unfashionable overweight people so I don’t think it’s anymore diverse than Japan or any other major developed countries.
The us is far more diverse than Japan WHAT?????? Japan is one of if not the most homogenous country. Most intelligent European take on the US
If you look at a place like the United Kingdom, it's much smaller than the US in size but the accent changes significantly even if you only travel for 100 miles. China, a country similar in size to the US, has different dialects of Chinese that are mutually unintelligible to each other. In America on the other hand, especially the West, accents are pretty universal. It is often difficult to tell if someone is from San Francisco, Denver or Cleveland for example.
Any person from those cities would slap you from saying that. America and its accents is not what you see in youtube videos, and thats a north american thing anyway Also you didn’t address Japan at all? The whole reason I commented??
I don't think Japan is more diverse than the United States but the accents are not as universal. If you travel 500 km from Tokyo to Osaka, the accent changes significantly. Anyone proficient in Japanese can instantly tell if someone is from Tokyo or Kansai just by hearing the accent. Now, Denver and St Louis are 1,000 km+ apart. Can most Americans really tell the difference between Denver and St. Louis accents? Based on my experience living in the States for a decade, I would think the answer is no.
Yes, they can actually. Edit: Hell even the AAVE is different from state to state. This gotta be the most European ass shit ive seen all day Edit 2: Hell the accent changes within the same state.
Have you been to the United States?
Yes, I am Japanese but I used to live in the US for 10 years.
Ah, then I’m surprised by such a myopic take on the USA.
Yeah, Japan isn't very big, only as big as the East Coast of the US end to end. If you overlay Japan on the US, Sapporo (northernmost 1mill+ city) lines up with Boston, Massachusetts, and Kagoshima (southernmost 1 mill+ city) lines up with Jacksonville, Florida. EDIT: 53% of the population lives in the three biggest cities (Tokyo, Keihanshin, Nagoya, 65 million), and Tokyo to Keihanshin is pretty much Boston to slightly past Philly, so the best comparison to the dense parts of Japan would probably be the North East Corridor (which happens to have just over 50 million people). In hindsight, the [North East Corridor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis) is probably the best comparison to make with [Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiheiy%C5%8D_Belt). Similar population and area.
The USA is 3.8 million sq miles. Japan is like 150,000 sq miles. Japan is 93 percent the size of California. Even if you took away Hawaii and Alaska, there are still 47 more states to travel through in the USA.
I guess you can't blanket compare the USA to Japan, but you can compare the East Coast to Japan. OP's description > strong currency, crime every other place, unsafe public transport & v expensive car rentals, high restaurant tips… probably fits with most if not all the East Coast. But you probably know more than I do as to how accurate of a portrayal of the US east coast that description is, I've never even been there.
I mean, oddly enough, a lot of the northeast of the USA has ok public transit. America doesn’t have great cross country transit for a few reasons. 1) lobbying by capitalists who want people to drive and or fly, 2) how our cities are set up and are meant for cars, but also 3) our country is so large that I’d rather sit for 5 hours in a plane flying from LA to NYC vs sitting all day in a train. I also don’t really get the argument about crime. A statistic I found said around 165 million people (more than the population of Japan) visited the USA last year. The most crime a normal person would face is traffic accidents and theft, but that’ll happen in Japan, too. Do dumb things happen like gun violence? Yes, but you are unlikely to be a target of random gun violence here. Most US citizens have never experienced a gun being discharged in public. If I had to levy any criticism about Japan as a destination for travel, I’d say that they have a lack of things for tourists to do which may lead to some of the problems. It sucks, but if you want tourists to go places, you’re gonna have to offer way more stuff in English over time.
>victim of its own success >one town erected a 1.8 meter fence to prevent tourists from snapping photos of Mt. Fuji The horror. The absolute horror. The biggest problem Japan has with tourists is that it just blows up every non-news worthy event when a tourist is involved. The majority of "foreigners causing problems" news would never make even a local paper if it were a Japanese person doing it.
Man people really love that bridge.
Last night, I was watching NHL News and they said that the numbers are Re halfway the amount for pre pandemic numbers. As others have say, the numbers are high due to being practically close for 3 years. I give it 2 years so they go back to normal.
As if this is unique to Japan 🇯🇵 It’s time to go outside folks
The issue is that the other tourist hotspots that people like to cite, such as France, have been tourist hotspots forever. Whereas tourism here is up over 400% since the 2000s. We went from literally nobody coming here to suddenly everyone and their mom flocking in. That’s why Japan seems a bit more sensitive to it.
They only want our money, not ourselves as the owner of our money.
I just came back from spending 9 days in Japan. Spoke very little Japanese, was respectful of the people and the culture, tried not to be like a typical American tourist, and my family and I had a great time. I can't wait to go back. They were some of the nicest people I've met, and that's comparing it to the Phillipines, who are also known as the nicest people you'll ever meet worldwide.
Agreed.
We are here now…I agree with your sentiment. 😇 My young adult son is wheelchair-bound; any places you felt were overflowing with tourists that you suggest we avoid?
Fushimi Inari Taisha Sembon Torii (Thousand Torii Gates) in Kyoto was overflowing with tourists. Nice place, but not worth the hype.
Well I'm glad I'll never be a tourist again in Japan.
I’ll bite; why not?
I go there to see my wife's family. No time to do touristy stuff and I stay in one of the many endless residential area near Tokyo where nothing happens. Boring but at least I avoid the crowds. ;)
Suffering from succ
For years I have heard that immigration will ruin Japan. But tourism got there first. In fact, the tourists are making immigrants here look pretty good if you ask me.
The tourism is fine.. It’s the local’s reaction to the tourism that’s the problem
Every day is a slow news day in Japan, the tourism stories have given the Japanese something to get into a huff about.
I’d say it’s more the local government policies that are the problem. Of course locals being hateful is bad, but even tourists can see that some places should have better tourism infrastructure.
Exactly. That’s not the tourists fault
Yes, I agree with that! I just don’t think the problem is the locals’ reaction, more like the government the locals elect I guess?
That's a very weird take. If the majority of locals reject tourism, it means there is an issue with tourism, not with the locals....
As long as the locals aren’t xenophobic. Sure
There’s no such thing as reject tourism. It happens, it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna keep happening, and the numbers will likely continue going up for a while.
Everyone who got married post covid in 2023 is now taking their 2024 honeymoon
own success? you miss spelled “lack of planning and management ”
I’m going to Japan in a month to visit my relatives and I’m a bit scared of seeing weirdo tourists like Johnny Somali
A ridiculous thing to be scared of. You’re giving way too much power to shit rags and clickbait.
Wait, but you are part of the 'tourist' problem too then.
I’m part Japanese and was born in Nagoya. I’m not a Japanese citizen anymore bc I live in America now. In my comment, I was referring to tourists who act out and disrespect Japan and its people. That’s why I called them weirdos.
Highest problem is, that 96% of the country is full of people don't want tourism and most times only Tokio and a bit of nara, kioto or osaka can handle a bit of. With a system that spread people more over the land and make offerings to stay Elsewhere would be nice. Also don't like tourism but made lot of advertising and Japanese influencers shouting out that Japan is open and best time visiting now and than having stuff like no foreign enter and more charging. Next move they want flood the world with anime and manga more than ever, but maybe we should Boykott that too. Even people who live there 5 year + with permanent resident make videos of leaving lately. Without, they will face Russia, china and NK alone. Have fun.
You’re joking right?