Tourism only makes up 2.2% of Japan’s GDP, in the grand scheme of things the over tourism that’s concentrated in the handful of cities is more of a problem than an economic contributor, even when you don’t want to admit it.
"Only 2.2%". That's an Enormous chunk of money that Japan is getting essentially for "free". (They don't have to built new temples, infrastructure, or anything else material to pull in this money).
Tourism as a cost, moreso in the case of overtourism. Japan is not the first place to have experienced overtourism (in certain areas). Many places in SEA or LATAM has been “trashed” due to overtourism.
Saying that tourism is “free” money is just stupid and ignorant
Sorry but definitely not free.
Case in point: look at Kyoto and how they have to open up bus routes which only serves tourists spots to lighten the load on bus routes for the local citizens. That's absolutely building new infrastructure to coup with over tourism.
When over tourism is pushing your public infrastructure beyond its capacity you then have to spend money to coup with it - that's why it is called \*over\* tourism. You also then take the risk that the tourism spike is only temporary and the expansion might end up being a long term money sink (Olympic projects are prime examples of this). The other option is do nothing and make everyone angry.
Over tourism also tends to push up rents at the hotspots, which creates other economic problems for the locals, while only benefitting a tiny minority of business people and property owners and screwing over the general population.
Over tourism is NEVER free money - that's why it's an issue. Stop acting like this is just Japan being xenophobic.
Literally. If it didn't capitalise on tourism it'd just be a former capital. It'd be a haven for housewives married to executives like kamakura.
Except kamakura is kinda chill and at least it has a beach and ain't a radiator bowl in summer
Yeah. Kamakura ain't too bad. It is boring, but not terrible to get to and has some fancy things.
I did a year in Kyoto 20 years ago or so as a student and it was fine at the time, but there is no way I would choose to live there. The weather sucks and the people aren't friendly. They are lucky they get tourists.
Having a problem and then badly manages it and making it worst doesn't mean the problem didn't exists in the first place, in fact it falls into my point about "doing nothing and make everyone angry" part of over tourism.
I lived in Kyoto for a year. I have lived in Shinjuku. I live near Narita airport now. I used to live near the cruise ship docks in Fukuoka.
I've lived all over. Tourists exist. That is why there are hotels.
Yes, but it's not like the city runs the buses for free. The tourists have to pay to ride them, so I don't see how that's a loss for the city. Also, the temples are looking spanking new. I remember when I first toured around Kyoto in the 90s and how run down everything was. Not anymore! Yes, tourism isn't free, but the solution isn't to create a tourism quota - it is to charge more. This is Economics 101.
The issue is that the roads in Kyoto are already over-crowded due to the age of the city and you are adding more buses, which potentially contributes to traffic jams, which then causes more problems.
Another widely reported issue is the prevelance of illegal taxis operated mainly by Chinese people which ignores the rules and again clogging up the streets.
It's really not as simple as people think it is, and yes nothing is free - there's ALWAYS a cost/benefit involved, and you defintely can reach a point where the cost outweights the benefits if you don't control it properly. Kyoto is a prime example of them failing to control it such that the benefits are not being felt by the majority of the citizens there.
I was there in April and it wasn't that bad. If those taxis are cheaper I'm all for it! But honestly, the city should have built another subway line long ago. They should look into it. I mean they only have two lines and they already have ridership that is roughly 1/4 of Osaka just with them. They wouldn't need as many buses if they had a decent loop line like Osaka.
I just passed through Kyoto station last week and it's absolute chaos in there. The crowd isn't even the biggest issue but the inconsiderate behaviour of a tiny portion of the tourists really does rubs people the wrong way - such as people sitting on the stairs and the streets just taking up the entire path when there's no other way to get around them. Those tiny portion of people really ruins it for a lot of others and make a bad problem much more worse.
Before that I've also visit Kyoto twice - once in 2003 and another during the COVID lockdown when inbound traffic weren't allow. During lockdown Kyoto was beautiful and almost fantasy like as there's hardly anyone around anywhere - I felt like I've been transported 400 years back in time. Obviously I'm not naiive enough to think that's economically sustainable for such a city but I'm also sure that's going to be an experience I'll never be able to experience again. At least during 2003 the crowd size was healthy - you aren't rubbing shoulder to shoulder nor are you lining up an hour to get into Shimizu-dera.
Building another subway line should've been done ages ago, but doing it now is another one of the issues I said before which is by the time it is completed you don't know it will be used to its planned capacity or will it just be abandon due to the tourism spike passing and people are already sick of the city and not coming back, while there's not enough locals to actually keep the line operational. Poorly timed and late executed plans - even when the plan originally makes sense - can still be a massive issue. And we know the Kyoto government is incompetent/corrupted enough that they'd rather skim off the money instead of solving the problems anyway so Kyoto's problem is essentially fucked up beyond repair.
Meh, Summers are always a little nutty in Kyoto. The Gion Matsuri is about to kick off, for starters.
Anyway, pretty much all the tourists go to Kinkakuji and there isn't a convenient line there. That's a big chunk of the bus traffic to be honest. They could easily run a line up there from Nishioji Sanjo and then over to Ritsumeikan and then they'd have all the students to support it as well. I can't believe it hasn't been proposed in the past 20 years. It's a serious no-brainer.
This is dead wrong. It’s estimated that it was around 9% in 2023 and that was with around 80% of the pre-Covid number of visitors. If that number continues to climb like it appears to be it will most likely be well over 10% of the GDP this year.
Sorry, I meant "Do you have a source that it will be well over 10% of the GDP this year?"
Your source doesn't mention GDP, but that's my fault for a confusing request. My bad.
However, I think "Well over 10%" may be an overestimate.
In 2019, the % of GDP in Japan from tourism was a little less than 7%.
[https://knoema.com/atlas/Japan/topics/Tourism/Travel-and-Tourism-Total-Contribution-to-Employment/Contribution-of-travel-and-tourism-to-employment-percent-of-GDP](https://knoema.com/atlas/Japan/topics/Tourism/Travel-and-Tourism-Total-Contribution-to-Employment/Contribution-of-travel-and-tourism-to-employment-percent-of-GDP)
In February 2019, visitor arrivals to Japan were at 2.6 million. In February 2024, visitor arrivals were at 2.7 million. So that's definitely an increase, but it's only a 4% increase.
Even with the strong dollar, even with heavier spending, I think tourism will only make up 7.5% to 8.5% of their GDP this year. 9% maybe.
1) the problems mostly coming from the boneheadedness of the Japanese, 2) “just 2%” is about he same size as the might Japanese car industry, 3) i don’t really see that many service or manufacturing doing that well
Tourism is from non-residents is $45.1 Billion. The #2 export behind cars. You're certifiably retarded if you think it's more of a problem than a benefit.
A lot of it is in Kyoto, where even native Japanese have to be careful with their etiquette. A lot of tourists understand other tourists behaving poorly, so they try to be as polite as they can. And many Japanese understand this and also appreciate the money being spent.
Japan wants to kick them out? what are you talking about? Japan is actively courting them, people on the street don't care. The main people that are talking about it are people on Reddit
I went to Japan when the exchange rate was reverse. One US dollar exchanged at 89 Japanese yen.
Man, that was one of the most expensive trip I took then.
I moved to us in 2011 and got them to match my JPY salary which was at 80 yen to the dollar.
Went from making 2000 yen\~ to more than $25 an hour as matching base pay before options.
-------
Looking it up: that job has the same salary. Which is now worth around $12, and $12 is a lot less than it was in 2011.
The value of Japan’s currency has tumbled so much that for a moment on Monday it took 160 yen to equal $1. A few years ago, it took closer to 100 yen to make a U.S. dollar. The yen has been so weak that it’s back to where it was in 1990, shortly after Japan’s famous “bubble economy” burst.
Yikes. I could have sworn the Yen was still strong a decade ago although 2008 was maybe the last time it peaked for surviving the financial crisis that year. That was probably the only time I've seen the British Pound near parity with the Yen.
The situation is paradoxical though: the USD is worth more because inflation is higher. This smells like something the market would correct at some point, violently and with a lot of small investors holding the bag.
Warren Buffett is doing the treasury thing but it can be anything. To get the 4.4% return on a 3-year treasury though, you need US dollars. These dollars are expensive because US interest rates are high. Ah, yen is cheap because interest rates are low. So a bank in Japan can lend yen at 0.1%, the borrower can convert that into US dollars and get a 4.4% from a T-bond. This is basically printing money because the Japanese loan has barely accumulated any interest. So Japanese borrowers maxing out their loans to invest in US assets, which wreaks havoc on the currency because it's only going one way. The problem of course is that if you invest in a USD asset and the yen starts appreciating you can't just sell your asset and pay back the loan. Your $100 investment was based on a loan of 1600 yen. But if the yen returns to 130 you only get 1300 back when you cash out, leaving you on the hook for the remaining 300 yen. This reversal can happen pretty fast if a bunch of Japanese investors decide to cash out at the same time.
Too bad US citizens/other countries citizens can’t borrow in yen because at near 0% interest, that money could do a lot of good as investments elsewhere.
That's good then. In my business it hurts us because we import stuff to make what we make, but if I didn't import stuff for work I don't think the yen's value would affect me so much. I'd like to see it go up of course for overseas trips though.
True that but I have many international business trips in EUR and USD countries, very painful since the private expenses are usually not covered, meaning I pay 50-60% more than some years ago
I’ve been eyeing a lot of Michelin starred restaurants that I’d otherwise pass up had the yen not weakened as much. Seeing 30.000 - 50.000 yen for dinner hits different these days.
Eh, Tokyo's fine. If you want to avoid tourists, it's incredibly easy to do so while still seeing some cool stuff. Just don't go to Asakusa/Ueno/Harajuku/Shibuya/Shinjuku/Toyosu and you'll hardly find any tourists.
Same for Osaka and even Kyoto tbh. Literally the only abnormally crowded area in Osaka is the middle of Dotonbori; Umeda is the same mess it always has been. As for Kyoto, I think most people get so exhausted from swimming upstream through Kinkaku-ji/Arashiyama/Fushimi Inari that they don't bother with much else. You really don't have to go far down the list of things to do in Kyoto for the crowds to thin out and that's before getting to the 100s of lesser known temples and shrines.
Dotonburi is my old stomping ground from way back in 2005...many good memories there. I hear the Bikuri Donkey is still there across from the Glico man building. I once walked all the way from Umeda to that bridge using the Midosuji the whole way.
I have friends going in August. I’ve been to Japan many times, mostly on business, but also as a tourist. (And I’d always fit something enjoyable in when I was there for work). Anyway, I could not convince my friends to pick a different month (it will be hot) or diverge from an itinerary of only Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. I tried.
I did a rough calc and the cost of a flight is about in line with USD rate of inflation. There are multiple options now for inbound flights to Japan so the competition has kept prices relatively low.
Fuck this.
Ever since I moved to Japan, salary went down, yen went down and I still have to send fucking money overseas once in awhile.
The yen is undervalued as fuck, I don't believe it for one second the US dollar is worth what they claim it's worth.
Market manipulation but people gonna say I'm being a sore loser.... Goddam it
You are being irrational. The dollar is down against the euro, so is the EU winning at market manipulation against the US? The yen is weak because Bank of Japan refuses to raise interest rates so the yen is cheap. Raising interest rates might cause Japan’s economy to slow down even further so it’s a rock and a hard place.
From my understanding, raising interest rates will also cause Japan to need to service more debt and so print more money thus worsening the yen weakness anyway. They're definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place.
You brought up California, making it relevant. You seem to have a lot of pent up aggression big guy, maybe you should take a break from the video games and go touch grass.
I think you spent too much time online. There's about 150,000 homeless people in California and around 40 million people live there. It's just fine worry about your own problems. They just need to sell news stories.
One where a bunch of homeless people from all over the country moved to Los Angeles/ San Fran because the weather is nice. So it's disproportionate. And I also pointed out to you it's SITLL a much lower rate of homelessness than similar size places like Germany (By a significant margin!)
The state has spent 24 billion dollars over the past 5 years to greatly improve the situation... Billion. Most places would only dream of having that kind of cash to help mitigate their social issues.
Since the state spends a lot of money trying to help people more homeless people show up. And the cycle continues.
And then some whack job on Reddit who's mostly interacted with California through dramatic news clips posts a message and calls The ENTIRE! state of California lol a homeless, drug-filled state.
It's absolutely gorgeous and a lovely place to live.
And so I point out I think you're missing the boat and should touch grass
Your comments are full of lies and inaccuracies, probably just parroted from whatever dramatic news clips YOU have been watching.
>The state has spent 24 billion dollars over the past 5 years to greatly improve the situation
[It's gotten worse, not better.](https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/01/california-homeless-point-in-time-count-2024/)
It's increased nearly 40% over the last 5 years.
>Most places would only dream of having that kind of cash to help mitigate their social issues.
Most places would also actually use that kind of cash to FIX THE PROBLEM.
How in the ever loving fuck do you think throwing $24b at a major social problem and somehow MAKING IT MUCH WORSE it something to brag about?
Either you're just a bored troll, or you're so far detached from reality in whatever rich white suburban shelter you live in that you really believe that the Democratic People's Republic of California is doing anything other than furthering extreme capitalism by enriching Hollywood and Silicon Valley elites along with the politicians they own while watching the rest of the state burn and starve.
I don't understand why you're so passionate about somewhere you don't live but...
I agree it sucks and it's a blight on society and it's a blight on the people who live in LA and the outskirts of San Francisco. But again calling California the entire state as homeless, and drug infested is hyperbolic. Which is what I took umbrage to.
And even in the major cities people spend millions of dollars to live there they wouldn't be doing so if it was a horrible experience and place to live. It's clearly not.
Germany has around 300- 600,000 homeless (depending on who's counting) with a population of 80 million give or take.
California has a homeless population about 150,000 with a population of 40 million. The reason it's so visible is because they congregate in the two largest cities. There's also more people who are on the streets or in their cars compared to other places that have large congregations of homeless people due to the good weather and shelter limitations. Which makes it a significantly bigger eyesore.
Trying to find statistics that are similar from source to source is difficult I've seen numbers between 20% and 50% of the nation's homeless population is in California
Homelessness has gotten worse Nationwide since the pandemic in the housing crisis as many places in the country and in the world housing prices have shot up parabolically. It's not just a California Sate problem. Through the major cities of California are uniquely expensive.
But California was able to lessen the effects of the pandemic homelessness. Last year homelessness rose 12% Nationwide and California had only rose 5%.
I can't imagine why about 4 billion a year for the past 5 years hasn't fixed the problem. Though there's plenty of societal issues such as drugs and mental illness and unlike Japan it's much more socially acceptable to be homeless or live out of a car. People also don't like going to shelters as there's a lack of privacy and security along with many restrictions.
Germany's also shelling out money in the billions and hasn't solved their problem. They've just started rolling out some even bigger plans in the tens of billions so I look forward to see how it goes.
But I the situation in California would be SIGNIFICANTLY worse without the money and time that has already been spent in trying to mitigate it. The programs have served around a half a million people and As of 2018 it funded around 130,000 beds in shelters and transitional housing. And I'm sure much more has been built since then.
Sources:
DW news
FeanTSA.Org
The San Francisco standard
The state of California government
Homeless strategy.com
The associated press
This honestly boggles my mind. The care and quality that goes into Japanese products, and I can buy stuff with Australian dollars like I’m in Cambodia. Doesn’t feel right.
Meanwhile Bank of Japan be like “It is not necessary for us to intervene at this point of time. We will do it when it is necessary.” (Truth is they tried and failed hard so now they just play possum).
So many US people complaining, at least you can go back to your country and earn in dollars, the rest of us, in particular people from non developed countries dont have any other choice
I’m currently on vacation in Japan. 4 of us went to lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking a lake ended up spending about $32 usd. Everything feels really inexpensive here
Dining in Japan is famously inexpensive even before the whack exchange rate. It’s horrifying for Japanese people to pay at least double at (for example) American restaurants and three have to tip on top of that.
From the comments, it seems there are a large number of people who don't understand economics.
First of all, the economy takes time to be reflected.
If you guys are feeling any problems right now, unless you are in a position to be affected by the exchange rate, it is more the effect of covid and the Ukrainian war than the weak yen.
Second, the weak yen is not happening because of Japan's poor economy. It is because foreign economies are in trouble.
They had failed to take covid measures, infected far more people than in Japan, and had locked down the entire city. This has forced them to raise interest rates due to accelerated inflation. In addition, the problem of mass immigration is adding to it.
Finally, a weak yen is not unilaterally bad. Such a drastic change would cause economic turmoil, but the reason Japan's economy was in the doldrums in the first place was that the strong yen had weakened the export industry. China, for example, manipulates exchange rates to induce currency depreciation.
Furthermore, a weaker yen is more favorable for tourism and gaining investment.
For some reason, the Western media likes to report the Japanese economy as if it were worse than the West, but I believe the opposite is true. The current economic situation is bad worldwide due to the war and covid. However, Japan is a relatively good country.
Might be wrong but I think Japan's economy is the best it has been in 35 years, the stock market value reached the same it did in the late 80s. Weak yen obviously helps exporters like automobile manufacturers, and tourist are actually good for the economy.
I have lived in Japan for a long time and have seen the yen at 238 then down to 89 so nothing new. I'm glad that my social security is in USD although it probably won't keep up with the cost of JIF peanut butter.
So the last intervention cost us taxpayers 60 billion USD and lasted a few weeks. The intervention before that cost the same. Now the half-life of interventions is shortening. Each one costing us dearly, nearly 1000 USD per taxpayer. Just give us taxpayers the money directly so WE can fight inflation as WE see fit.
This news is getting boring. It seems like every week it's the same story again and again and again "Japan's yen is getting weaker and weaker". Got it, just like the last 50 times I read the same story.
At what point can we say this isn't news anymore?
And is it that none of the countermeasures have worked or that no countermeasures are being taken?
Why are you being disliked? It's true, this is getting annoying- i really only want to hear about things related to the yen when it comes to/talks about new policies to help or for something that actually is different than just weak yen haha depreciating yen cheap tourism.
just fyi, if you havn't seen Luup, you can use the Luup EScooters without a license. They are pretty big now, litterally any spot in tokyo will have multiple luup stations nearby.
Weakest since 1990… so far!
Yeah all I've seen these past few months (years) is headlines along the lines of "Yen weakest since [insert time further back than last time]"
Thanks for the weekly demotivation.
So many tourists dropping off their $$ and not making a dent
yeah, and Japan just want to kick them out because what a burden to have people paying to stay around
Tourism only makes up 2.2% of Japan’s GDP, in the grand scheme of things the over tourism that’s concentrated in the handful of cities is more of a problem than an economic contributor, even when you don’t want to admit it.
"Only 2.2%". That's an Enormous chunk of money that Japan is getting essentially for "free". (They don't have to built new temples, infrastructure, or anything else material to pull in this money).
Most tourism revenue in Japan is generated from domestic travel.
Tourism as a cost, moreso in the case of overtourism. Japan is not the first place to have experienced overtourism (in certain areas). Many places in SEA or LATAM has been “trashed” due to overtourism. Saying that tourism is “free” money is just stupid and ignorant
Sorry but definitely not free. Case in point: look at Kyoto and how they have to open up bus routes which only serves tourists spots to lighten the load on bus routes for the local citizens. That's absolutely building new infrastructure to coup with over tourism. When over tourism is pushing your public infrastructure beyond its capacity you then have to spend money to coup with it - that's why it is called \*over\* tourism. You also then take the risk that the tourism spike is only temporary and the expansion might end up being a long term money sink (Olympic projects are prime examples of this). The other option is do nothing and make everyone angry. Over tourism also tends to push up rents at the hotspots, which creates other economic problems for the locals, while only benefitting a tiny minority of business people and property owners and screwing over the general population. Over tourism is NEVER free money - that's why it's an issue. Stop acting like this is just Japan being xenophobic.
Kyoto is a badly managed city that should not represent the way municipalities in Japan are run.
Literally. Kyoto has one job as a city and they still mess it up and complain about tourists
That is what happens when a bunch of stuck up people think what they have is special rather than a commodity.
Literally. If it didn't capitalise on tourism it'd just be a former capital. It'd be a haven for housewives married to executives like kamakura. Except kamakura is kinda chill and at least it has a beach and ain't a radiator bowl in summer
Yeah. Kamakura ain't too bad. It is boring, but not terrible to get to and has some fancy things. I did a year in Kyoto 20 years ago or so as a student and it was fine at the time, but there is no way I would choose to live there. The weather sucks and the people aren't friendly. They are lucky they get tourists.
Having a problem and then badly manages it and making it worst doesn't mean the problem didn't exists in the first place, in fact it falls into my point about "doing nothing and make everyone angry" part of over tourism.
But it isn't over tourism. It's a made up idea. Tourism has always been about people dealing with bullshit.
Tell me you've never lived in an area overran by tourism without telling me.
I lived in Kyoto for a year. I have lived in Shinjuku. I live near Narita airport now. I used to live near the cruise ship docks in Fukuoka. I've lived all over. Tourists exist. That is why there are hotels.
Yes, but it's not like the city runs the buses for free. The tourists have to pay to ride them, so I don't see how that's a loss for the city. Also, the temples are looking spanking new. I remember when I first toured around Kyoto in the 90s and how run down everything was. Not anymore! Yes, tourism isn't free, but the solution isn't to create a tourism quota - it is to charge more. This is Economics 101.
The issue is that the roads in Kyoto are already over-crowded due to the age of the city and you are adding more buses, which potentially contributes to traffic jams, which then causes more problems. Another widely reported issue is the prevelance of illegal taxis operated mainly by Chinese people which ignores the rules and again clogging up the streets. It's really not as simple as people think it is, and yes nothing is free - there's ALWAYS a cost/benefit involved, and you defintely can reach a point where the cost outweights the benefits if you don't control it properly. Kyoto is a prime example of them failing to control it such that the benefits are not being felt by the majority of the citizens there.
I was there in April and it wasn't that bad. If those taxis are cheaper I'm all for it! But honestly, the city should have built another subway line long ago. They should look into it. I mean they only have two lines and they already have ridership that is roughly 1/4 of Osaka just with them. They wouldn't need as many buses if they had a decent loop line like Osaka.
I just passed through Kyoto station last week and it's absolute chaos in there. The crowd isn't even the biggest issue but the inconsiderate behaviour of a tiny portion of the tourists really does rubs people the wrong way - such as people sitting on the stairs and the streets just taking up the entire path when there's no other way to get around them. Those tiny portion of people really ruins it for a lot of others and make a bad problem much more worse. Before that I've also visit Kyoto twice - once in 2003 and another during the COVID lockdown when inbound traffic weren't allow. During lockdown Kyoto was beautiful and almost fantasy like as there's hardly anyone around anywhere - I felt like I've been transported 400 years back in time. Obviously I'm not naiive enough to think that's economically sustainable for such a city but I'm also sure that's going to be an experience I'll never be able to experience again. At least during 2003 the crowd size was healthy - you aren't rubbing shoulder to shoulder nor are you lining up an hour to get into Shimizu-dera. Building another subway line should've been done ages ago, but doing it now is another one of the issues I said before which is by the time it is completed you don't know it will be used to its planned capacity or will it just be abandon due to the tourism spike passing and people are already sick of the city and not coming back, while there's not enough locals to actually keep the line operational. Poorly timed and late executed plans - even when the plan originally makes sense - can still be a massive issue. And we know the Kyoto government is incompetent/corrupted enough that they'd rather skim off the money instead of solving the problems anyway so Kyoto's problem is essentially fucked up beyond repair.
Meh, Summers are always a little nutty in Kyoto. The Gion Matsuri is about to kick off, for starters. Anyway, pretty much all the tourists go to Kinkakuji and there isn't a convenient line there. That's a big chunk of the bus traffic to be honest. They could easily run a line up there from Nishioji Sanjo and then over to Ritsumeikan and then they'd have all the students to support it as well. I can't believe it hasn't been proposed in the past 20 years. It's a serious no-brainer.
This is dead wrong. It’s estimated that it was around 9% in 2023 and that was with around 80% of the pre-Covid number of visitors. If that number continues to climb like it appears to be it will most likely be well over 10% of the GDP this year.
Source?
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Travel-Leisure/Japan-received-25m-tourists-in-2023-reaching-79-of-pre-COVID-level
Sorry, I meant "Do you have a source that it will be well over 10% of the GDP this year?" Your source doesn't mention GDP, but that's my fault for a confusing request. My bad. However, I think "Well over 10%" may be an overestimate. In 2019, the % of GDP in Japan from tourism was a little less than 7%. [https://knoema.com/atlas/Japan/topics/Tourism/Travel-and-Tourism-Total-Contribution-to-Employment/Contribution-of-travel-and-tourism-to-employment-percent-of-GDP](https://knoema.com/atlas/Japan/topics/Tourism/Travel-and-Tourism-Total-Contribution-to-Employment/Contribution-of-travel-and-tourism-to-employment-percent-of-GDP) In February 2019, visitor arrivals to Japan were at 2.6 million. In February 2024, visitor arrivals were at 2.7 million. So that's definitely an increase, but it's only a 4% increase. Even with the strong dollar, even with heavier spending, I think tourism will only make up 7.5% to 8.5% of their GDP this year. 9% maybe.
1) the problems mostly coming from the boneheadedness of the Japanese, 2) “just 2%” is about he same size as the might Japanese car industry, 3) i don’t really see that many service or manufacturing doing that well
That's the difference between positive growth and a recession though.
Tourism is from non-residents is $45.1 Billion. The #2 export behind cars. You're certifiably retarded if you think it's more of a problem than a benefit.
Lol, this comment alone with make the foreigners REEEE
A lot of it is in Kyoto, where even native Japanese have to be careful with their etiquette. A lot of tourists understand other tourists behaving poorly, so they try to be as polite as they can. And many Japanese understand this and also appreciate the money being spent.
Japan wants to kick them out? what are you talking about? Japan is actively courting them, people on the street don't care. The main people that are talking about it are people on Reddit
do you read newspapers?
yes. Did you have anything real to add?
We spent like kings.
Tourism is a good way to create foreign demand for yen.
I went to Japan when the exchange rate was reverse. One US dollar exchanged at 89 Japanese yen. Man, that was one of the most expensive trip I took then.
Which year was that?
It was early 1990's. I remember doing exchange at local Japanese bank and when $100 US came back 8900 Yen JP, it hurt.
dont even have to go back that far, 2016 the dollar fell under 100 yen, that was 8 years ago.
I moved to us in 2011 and got them to match my JPY salary which was at 80 yen to the dollar. Went from making 2000 yen\~ to more than $25 an hour as matching base pay before options. ------- Looking it up: that job has the same salary. Which is now worth around $12, and $12 is a lot less than it was in 2011.
I see, make sense. Right after the bubble.
1995 was the only time that the yen got under 100:1 with the USD in the 90s.
What? no. the first few years I lived here around 2011 the yen was worth more.
"In the 90s". Of course, in the late 00s and early 10s it also got below 100:1 for a few years.
ah ok, the wording was confusing to me
Before the battle of midway so 1942ish if I had to guess. Jk jk
12 years ago, it was 86 per USD
It was that rate in 2011 when the Tohoku Earthquake hit.
The value of Japan’s currency has tumbled so much that for a moment on Monday it took 160 yen to equal $1. A few years ago, it took closer to 100 yen to make a U.S. dollar. The yen has been so weak that it’s back to where it was in 1990, shortly after Japan’s famous “bubble economy” burst.
it's been back over 160 since this morning
Yikes. I could have sworn the Yen was still strong a decade ago although 2008 was maybe the last time it peaked for surviving the financial crisis that year. That was probably the only time I've seen the British Pound near parity with the Yen.
Yeah, the yen was strong in the late 00s and early 10s.
Yeah I was in Okinawa back then and remember it was like 80 yen to 1 USD or something.
The yen was decently strong up until like 2 years ago when the US started raising interest rates.
The yen was at like 200-300 to the dollar for decades before the 90s. Export economies tend to benefit from weak local currencies.
So you saying I should put my american dollars into my suica
Is this the end of the trend or the midpoint?
It would be good but does it accept overseas credit cards? I know that PayPay doesn’t.
Can load Suica on my iPhone via US card/Apple Pay.
I tried using Apple Pay with Mercari but it does t allow overseas credit cards
Does it expire after awhile of inactivity. I know some of the physical cards do but not sure on virtual wallets.
limit 20,000 yen balance. and why not wait to do it at 170 or 180 lol
Why is this happening?
Because the big retirement funds can get 5.3% on treasuries in the US, and 0.01% in Japan. That’s it in a nutshell.
The situation is paradoxical though: the USD is worth more because inflation is higher. This smells like something the market would correct at some point, violently and with a lot of small investors holding the bag.
Can you explain why that would be a cause? Because big funds are buying US treasuries, which means demand for USD goes up and supply of JPY goes up?
Yes exactly. No demand for the JPY and its low rates.
Warren Buffett is doing the treasury thing but it can be anything. To get the 4.4% return on a 3-year treasury though, you need US dollars. These dollars are expensive because US interest rates are high. Ah, yen is cheap because interest rates are low. So a bank in Japan can lend yen at 0.1%, the borrower can convert that into US dollars and get a 4.4% from a T-bond. This is basically printing money because the Japanese loan has barely accumulated any interest. So Japanese borrowers maxing out their loans to invest in US assets, which wreaks havoc on the currency because it's only going one way. The problem of course is that if you invest in a USD asset and the yen starts appreciating you can't just sell your asset and pay back the loan. Your $100 investment was based on a loan of 1600 yen. But if the yen returns to 130 you only get 1300 back when you cash out, leaving you on the hook for the remaining 300 yen. This reversal can happen pretty fast if a bunch of Japanese investors decide to cash out at the same time.
Too bad US citizens/other countries citizens can’t borrow in yen because at near 0% interest, that money could do a lot of good as investments elsewhere.
High interest rates in the US and ballooning Japanese sovereign wealth and government price controls keeping a lid on inflation in Japan.
Earning in JPY makes me rather sad… I hope this gets back to normal in the next 7-10 years
Yeah. It really is demotivating 😞
At least you live in Japan?
yes
That's good then. In my business it hurts us because we import stuff to make what we make, but if I didn't import stuff for work I don't think the yen's value would affect me so much. I'd like to see it go up of course for overseas trips though.
True that but I have many international business trips in EUR and USD countries, very painful since the private expenses are usually not covered, meaning I pay 50-60% more than some years ago
Yesterday an American couple came into my store and spend around 600,000¥. When I googled it to tell them the total I was floored. Not even 4,000$
What did they buy?
Isn't that good for you ? :)
Absolutely! I just mean when something is 600,000 yen I would usually say to them « it’s about 5 thousand dollars
I’ve been eyeing a lot of Michelin starred restaurants that I’d otherwise pass up had the yen not weakened as much. Seeing 30.000 - 50.000 yen for dinner hits different these days.
Honestly for a tourist its a good thing. But since the flights are more expensive and JR pass has gone up in price. No much savings to be made.
yeah, air lines will know that people can just spend more on flight tickets if they pay less on hotels and food
Just don't go to kyoto, osaka, or tokyo. Tourist overload. If you're going to visit, visit some where a little hidden
Eh, Tokyo's fine. If you want to avoid tourists, it's incredibly easy to do so while still seeing some cool stuff. Just don't go to Asakusa/Ueno/Harajuku/Shibuya/Shinjuku/Toyosu and you'll hardly find any tourists.
Same for Osaka and even Kyoto tbh. Literally the only abnormally crowded area in Osaka is the middle of Dotonbori; Umeda is the same mess it always has been. As for Kyoto, I think most people get so exhausted from swimming upstream through Kinkaku-ji/Arashiyama/Fushimi Inari that they don't bother with much else. You really don't have to go far down the list of things to do in Kyoto for the crowds to thin out and that's before getting to the 100s of lesser known temples and shrines.
Dotonburi is my old stomping ground from way back in 2005...many good memories there. I hear the Bikuri Donkey is still there across from the Glico man building. I once walked all the way from Umeda to that bridge using the Midosuji the whole way.
Oh I do that walk along Midosuji all the time. Super nice during the holidays when it's all lit up.
Im in Kyoto and there are so many tourist lol
idk why you’re getting downvoted i’m also in kyoto and there are a lot of tourists
Takayama was cool pretty rural feeling with a lot of really friendly ppl
I have friends going in August. I’ve been to Japan many times, mostly on business, but also as a tourist. (And I’d always fit something enjoyable in when I was there for work). Anyway, I could not convince my friends to pick a different month (it will be hot) or diverge from an itinerary of only Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. I tried.
There's other big cities in Japan where it felt I was the only foreigner around. Walked an hour and it was all japanese people.
I did a rough calc and the cost of a flight is about in line with USD rate of inflation. There are multiple options now for inbound flights to Japan so the competition has kept prices relatively low.
Maybe where you are, but from where I am the flights have gone up by 66% from 2017 to 2024
So you're saying I could get 1,000 Kit Kats for like $25?
Japan is the new Thailand !! -Tourists in Japan
This is so bonkers
Fuck this. Ever since I moved to Japan, salary went down, yen went down and I still have to send fucking money overseas once in awhile. The yen is undervalued as fuck, I don't believe it for one second the US dollar is worth what they claim it's worth. Market manipulation but people gonna say I'm being a sore loser.... Goddam it
You are being irrational. The dollar is down against the euro, so is the EU winning at market manipulation against the US? The yen is weak because Bank of Japan refuses to raise interest rates so the yen is cheap. Raising interest rates might cause Japan’s economy to slow down even further so it’s a rock and a hard place.
From my understanding, raising interest rates will also cause Japan to need to service more debt and so print more money thus worsening the yen weakness anyway. They're definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Did your salary go down in yen? People keep converting their income to USD but keep ignoring the $300 rent payments and $0.80 train tickets.
As long as the U.S. is the dominant superpower, the dollar will reign supreme.
Bro Californias gdp alone is half that of Japan’s
Yeah but California is a dump filled with drugs, criminals and crazy homeless people.
As always, you can count on some dipshit that brings some random irrelevant point to the conversation
You brought up California, making it relevant. You seem to have a lot of pent up aggression big guy, maybe you should take a break from the video games and go touch grass.
Someone’s drinkin the kool aid again
I think you spent too much time online. There's about 150,000 homeless people in California and around 40 million people live there. It's just fine worry about your own problems. They just need to sell news stories.
>150,000 homeless people >It's just fine What kind of dystopian world are you living in?
One where a bunch of homeless people from all over the country moved to Los Angeles/ San Fran because the weather is nice. So it's disproportionate. And I also pointed out to you it's SITLL a much lower rate of homelessness than similar size places like Germany (By a significant margin!) The state has spent 24 billion dollars over the past 5 years to greatly improve the situation... Billion. Most places would only dream of having that kind of cash to help mitigate their social issues. Since the state spends a lot of money trying to help people more homeless people show up. And the cycle continues. And then some whack job on Reddit who's mostly interacted with California through dramatic news clips posts a message and calls The ENTIRE! state of California lol a homeless, drug-filled state. It's absolutely gorgeous and a lovely place to live. And so I point out I think you're missing the boat and should touch grass
Your comments are full of lies and inaccuracies, probably just parroted from whatever dramatic news clips YOU have been watching. >The state has spent 24 billion dollars over the past 5 years to greatly improve the situation [It's gotten worse, not better.](https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/01/california-homeless-point-in-time-count-2024/) It's increased nearly 40% over the last 5 years. >Most places would only dream of having that kind of cash to help mitigate their social issues. Most places would also actually use that kind of cash to FIX THE PROBLEM. How in the ever loving fuck do you think throwing $24b at a major social problem and somehow MAKING IT MUCH WORSE it something to brag about? Either you're just a bored troll, or you're so far detached from reality in whatever rich white suburban shelter you live in that you really believe that the Democratic People's Republic of California is doing anything other than furthering extreme capitalism by enriching Hollywood and Silicon Valley elites along with the politicians they own while watching the rest of the state burn and starve.
I don't understand why you're so passionate about somewhere you don't live but... I agree it sucks and it's a blight on society and it's a blight on the people who live in LA and the outskirts of San Francisco. But again calling California the entire state as homeless, and drug infested is hyperbolic. Which is what I took umbrage to. And even in the major cities people spend millions of dollars to live there they wouldn't be doing so if it was a horrible experience and place to live. It's clearly not. Germany has around 300- 600,000 homeless (depending on who's counting) with a population of 80 million give or take. California has a homeless population about 150,000 with a population of 40 million. The reason it's so visible is because they congregate in the two largest cities. There's also more people who are on the streets or in their cars compared to other places that have large congregations of homeless people due to the good weather and shelter limitations. Which makes it a significantly bigger eyesore. Trying to find statistics that are similar from source to source is difficult I've seen numbers between 20% and 50% of the nation's homeless population is in California Homelessness has gotten worse Nationwide since the pandemic in the housing crisis as many places in the country and in the world housing prices have shot up parabolically. It's not just a California Sate problem. Through the major cities of California are uniquely expensive. But California was able to lessen the effects of the pandemic homelessness. Last year homelessness rose 12% Nationwide and California had only rose 5%. I can't imagine why about 4 billion a year for the past 5 years hasn't fixed the problem. Though there's plenty of societal issues such as drugs and mental illness and unlike Japan it's much more socially acceptable to be homeless or live out of a car. People also don't like going to shelters as there's a lack of privacy and security along with many restrictions. Germany's also shelling out money in the billions and hasn't solved their problem. They've just started rolling out some even bigger plans in the tens of billions so I look forward to see how it goes. But I the situation in California would be SIGNIFICANTLY worse without the money and time that has already been spent in trying to mitigate it. The programs have served around a half a million people and As of 2018 it funded around 130,000 beds in shelters and transitional housing. And I'm sure much more has been built since then. Sources: DW news FeanTSA.Org The San Francisco standard The state of California government Homeless strategy.com The associated press
Yeah you are a sore loser people in the US claim inflation is fucking them over too blame Japan for having interest rates at 0
This honestly boggles my mind. The care and quality that goes into Japanese products, and I can buy stuff with Australian dollars like I’m in Cambodia. Doesn’t feel right.
Meanwhile Bank of Japan be like “It is not necessary for us to intervene at this point of time. We will do it when it is necessary.” (Truth is they tried and failed hard so now they just play possum).
I talked to an oji-chan from my local park. He experienced 1$ for 360¥ for about a decade long time ago so....💀
So many US people complaining, at least you can go back to your country and earn in dollars, the rest of us, in particular people from non developed countries dont have any other choice
I’m currently on vacation in Japan. 4 of us went to lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking a lake ended up spending about $32 usd. Everything feels really inexpensive here
also on vacation. I am regularly shocked at how cheap it is to eat. (good food, too!) even sashimi is affordable as fuck.
Dining in Japan is famously inexpensive even before the whack exchange rate. It’s horrifying for Japanese people to pay at least double at (for example) American restaurants and three have to tip on top of that.
So what I’m hearing is, now’s the time to vacation in Japan?
I guess so. I guess I'll travel to Japan soon
Do not being anything but the empty trolleys!
Even though it might be a year or 3 till I get a Japan trip, I should totally buy Yen now to stash right?
Sealed Pokemon card boxes
Not really. High interest savings gives close to 5% right now.
Its time to be a tourist again.
Time to load up anime goods
It fuels the economy :)
Sure thing, weeb.
Despite all this, everyone is living a luxury life even if they can’t afford it. I fear another bubble burst like the one before is going to happen.
From the comments, it seems there are a large number of people who don't understand economics. First of all, the economy takes time to be reflected. If you guys are feeling any problems right now, unless you are in a position to be affected by the exchange rate, it is more the effect of covid and the Ukrainian war than the weak yen. Second, the weak yen is not happening because of Japan's poor economy. It is because foreign economies are in trouble. They had failed to take covid measures, infected far more people than in Japan, and had locked down the entire city. This has forced them to raise interest rates due to accelerated inflation. In addition, the problem of mass immigration is adding to it. Finally, a weak yen is not unilaterally bad. Such a drastic change would cause economic turmoil, but the reason Japan's economy was in the doldrums in the first place was that the strong yen had weakened the export industry. China, for example, manipulates exchange rates to induce currency depreciation. Furthermore, a weaker yen is more favorable for tourism and gaining investment. For some reason, the Western media likes to report the Japanese economy as if it were worse than the West, but I believe the opposite is true. The current economic situation is bad worldwide due to the war and covid. However, Japan is a relatively good country.
Said a whole lot of nothing
You are wrong when you can't refute it.
how does the CAD compare with all the yen during all of this? should i look into exchanging for my trip soon
Weakening yen is aimed at Yuan. Currency war in Asia. Japan is goading China to devalue Yuan.
This articles from April.
Is there no way they can take advantage of this and turn themselves into an export power house again like in the 80s??
Might be wrong but I think Japan's economy is the best it has been in 35 years, the stock market value reached the same it did in the late 80s. Weak yen obviously helps exporters like automobile manufacturers, and tourist are actually good for the economy.
But regular people feel poor, they need more solar, geothermal and wind power to deal with their lack of oil
Fuk the haters japan is on the up :)
I have lived in Japan for a long time and have seen the yen at 238 then down to 89 so nothing new. I'm glad that my social security is in USD although it probably won't keep up with the cost of JIF peanut butter.
Why did I find this out from a YouTuber before any actual news source? Yumekaumemori
A third world country with high quality service. Almost everything is 50 percent off lol
US should immediately by LA to SF bullet train from Japan right now as will never be cheaper.
So the last intervention cost us taxpayers 60 billion USD and lasted a few weeks. The intervention before that cost the same. Now the half-life of interventions is shortening. Each one costing us dearly, nearly 1000 USD per taxpayer. Just give us taxpayers the money directly so WE can fight inflation as WE see fit.
Pretty sure it doesn't cost taxpayers anything. They are just exchanging usd to yen there is literally no immediate loss in actual money.
Wow that’s crazy
JPY getting nuked by the mighty USD
Wouldn’t be surprised if 170 threshold gets breached in second half of 2024.
Its wild. The euro is there already.
I had $5 usd beers during layover at Narita. It was great!
$5 usd for a beer in Japan?? Better have been a craft beer otherwise you got ripped off hard my guy
I won’t complain about cheap shit. I will complain a it the fall of a great nations.
Why are you being disliked
This news is getting boring. It seems like every week it's the same story again and again and again "Japan's yen is getting weaker and weaker". Got it, just like the last 50 times I read the same story. At what point can we say this isn't news anymore? And is it that none of the countermeasures have worked or that no countermeasures are being taken?
Why are you being disliked? It's true, this is getting annoying- i really only want to hear about things related to the yen when it comes to/talks about new policies to help or for something that actually is different than just weak yen haha depreciating yen cheap tourism.
[удалено]
If you want to gatekeep so bad then just go outside the main tourist areas.
Japan is still cool. Japan is more than Tokyo.
High five! I live in Japan, but my savings are in dollars
Yelps a dead service imo, Japan should stick to Google reviews.
This is gonna help me get tatted let’s go
Good to hear. Planning another trip soon. Gonna get my international driver's license so I can do one of the kart tours!
just fyi, if you havn't seen Luup, you can use the Luup EScooters without a license. They are pretty big now, litterally any spot in tokyo will have multiple luup stations nearby.
Hopefully this stays until at least October 2025.
Lol you ain't coming back.
Keep thinking that, little man.
Gonna get the EJU there big boy? Have you stopped your temper tantrum?
Hope it goes lower so good for the tourists.
It’s time for Japan to de-dollarize from the US dollar and join BRICS.
lol
yeah right. Hell will freeze before that happens. In case you missed something: Japan ain't much of a fan of any brics state.