As a resident of Japan, people need to get with the times. You can’t expect magically homogenized behavior from every single being in existence, so it’s time to stop acting like every traveler will become a mindreader to conform exactly to the specifications of some 70 year old from the inaka
Yes, we need to do better to make social norms clearly obeyed – but this shit? Doesn’t do that. This is like a Down’s syndrome addled toddler minded adult with extreme prejudice against anything that moves who knows already different people might do different things misconstrues things as an absolute and punishes everyone for the thought that someone might not act as they want.
And then there’s the Garbo mindset of superiority – we are not more superior than anyone else. We have several chances to educate people of our ways to coexist, but I don’t see people try that – they just screech ‘I don’t like that Chinese’ or ‘I don’t like that whitey’ and then that translates to the preconceived notion every single person not us will do that same thing.
That sets us up for major failure. We can coexist and be reasonable, so we should be.
Why is Japan so popular now and not 10 years ago ?
We visited Japan as a tourist last month. We stayed in Nagano Prefecture for five days, in Osaka and Kyoto for five days, and in Tokyo and surroundings for ten days.
I myself also had mixed feelings about my presence in Japan and my interactions with Japanese people and businesses. In Nagano Prefecture and Osaka, we met a lot of welcoming and friendly people and businesses, and we ourselves felt very welcome and relaxed.
In Kyoto and Tokyo however, we could sense that some local people and businesses were losing their tolerance for tourists. Sometimes small signs of grumpiness, sometimes just flatly refusing us or acting in a rude manner, or you could sense that they were just overwhelmed by the amount of people and tourists. That is totally understandable, and a common human geographical phenomenon that you can observe in a lot of famous touristic (capital) cities and islands. But it also made me feel like I was just a nuisance to them, which made me feel sad, because in a way we were just adding to the problem even though we were trying to adjust as much as possible to Japanese culture and standards.
I am genuinely not sure if I will visit Japan again. Not because I don’t like the country, I absolutely love it, but because I don’t want to be a part of people’s problems.
I don’t know if any of this makes sense, but I just wanted to write this.
Remove the 10% tax discount 😆 for tourists
That’s probably because everyone follows the rules here and tourists don’t. It’s hard if you don’t live here to understand exactly what that means, but especially in the smaller cities and town, people generally follow all of the rules. Like mostly all of them, they aren’t taken as suggestions like in America. You throw a large amount of people who don’t give a fuck about rules or don’t know them into a country like that and of course it’s going to be incredibly disruptive to the people that live there.
I am touristing in Japan right now in Tokyo and Osaka. Actually, I haven’t seen many foreigners. There are some, but I only see occasionally
We need to drag Crystal Whatsherface back out to update her 一発屋 gag.
“O-ver-tou-ris-m.
Overtourism”
In fairness, I’ve seen an absolute sh*t-ton of tourists recently (I live around a half hour by train outside the Tokyo Greatest Hits Zone, so I often find myself in the places where you’d expect to find tourists), and I haven’t seen any obnoxious behaviour; mainly people looking lost and staring at the GPS on their phones.
I do however sympathise with the staff at that Lawson (and the neighbouring dental surgery). The moronic, sheeplike, copycat behaviour which is a direct result of social media and the scourge of the modern era, “influencers”, needs to be stamped out hard, fast, and completely. If you can’t behave like a civilised human being, you don’t get treated like one. And for what? A bunch of “likes” for a photo that a) thousands of other people have taken, and b) that you’ll probably never look at again?
The government is clear with their stance. They want more tourists. So do businesses. Look at shareholder complaints about lack of tourist/chinese $$.
Japan needs immigration.
Need to charge for tourist visas. Not a ton, but there’s an amount you could charge such that Japan makes as much revenue as without the upcharge while having fewer tourists here
I think Japan and it’s people need to come to terms that transitioning into a tourism economy is for the best. Let’s be honest, Japanese manufacturing is dying and there will be a brain drain because capable people will prefer to earn stronger currency overseas. Interestingly, I think many will be happier with the option of being in the service industry than having office jobs.
Should have kept anime under wraps. Hah
Second time I’ve seen this post today. I’ve traveled the world, and when there was friction, I assumed the problem was my lack of understanding. I certainly didn’t expect the citizens to change their behavior to suit my desires. This title should probably read, “Tourism is booming in Japan, and the tourists are not handling it well.”
Give it 1-3 years and it will be about foreigner migration, 10-15yrs and it will be about half japanese making a percentage in the population.
My wife and I have visited as tourists 4 times in the last 7 years. We both have basic Japanese conversation understanding.
We both feel pretty disgusted with the recent tourist behaviour, and feel guilty for being tourists ourselves.
It feels that since the pandemic Japan has become a play-pen for idiots who’s lack of understanding or respect for the country and the people in it (mostly for social media clout) is getting out of hand.
Last time we visited (April 2024) we witnessed a Geisha being harassed on the street for photos, my SIL stood in the way of the cameras so the Geisha could escape. She herself then became verbally abused.
Tourism is a luxury which so few realise, maybe its time it should be taken away for the misbehaving?
What is with all the anti-tourists hysteria? The number of tourists visiting Japan is still BELOW pre-pandemic levels by the way.
17 comments
They should just ask for more departure tax.
As a resident of Japan, people need to get with the times. You can’t expect magically homogenized behavior from every single being in existence, so it’s time to stop acting like every traveler will become a mindreader to conform exactly to the specifications of some 70 year old from the inaka
Yes, we need to do better to make social norms clearly obeyed – but this shit? Doesn’t do that. This is like a Down’s syndrome addled toddler minded adult with extreme prejudice against anything that moves who knows already different people might do different things misconstrues things as an absolute and punishes everyone for the thought that someone might not act as they want.
And then there’s the Garbo mindset of superiority – we are not more superior than anyone else. We have several chances to educate people of our ways to coexist, but I don’t see people try that – they just screech ‘I don’t like that Chinese’ or ‘I don’t like that whitey’ and then that translates to the preconceived notion every single person not us will do that same thing.
That sets us up for major failure. We can coexist and be reasonable, so we should be.
Why is Japan so popular now and not 10 years ago ?
We visited Japan as a tourist last month. We stayed in Nagano Prefecture for five days, in Osaka and Kyoto for five days, and in Tokyo and surroundings for ten days.
I myself also had mixed feelings about my presence in Japan and my interactions with Japanese people and businesses. In Nagano Prefecture and Osaka, we met a lot of welcoming and friendly people and businesses, and we ourselves felt very welcome and relaxed.
In Kyoto and Tokyo however, we could sense that some local people and businesses were losing their tolerance for tourists. Sometimes small signs of grumpiness, sometimes just flatly refusing us or acting in a rude manner, or you could sense that they were just overwhelmed by the amount of people and tourists. That is totally understandable, and a common human geographical phenomenon that you can observe in a lot of famous touristic (capital) cities and islands. But it also made me feel like I was just a nuisance to them, which made me feel sad, because in a way we were just adding to the problem even though we were trying to adjust as much as possible to Japanese culture and standards.
I am genuinely not sure if I will visit Japan again. Not because I don’t like the country, I absolutely love it, but because I don’t want to be a part of people’s problems.
I don’t know if any of this makes sense, but I just wanted to write this.
Remove the 10% tax discount 😆 for tourists
That’s probably because everyone follows the rules here and tourists don’t. It’s hard if you don’t live here to understand exactly what that means, but especially in the smaller cities and town, people generally follow all of the rules. Like mostly all of them, they aren’t taken as suggestions like in America. You throw a large amount of people who don’t give a fuck about rules or don’t know them into a country like that and of course it’s going to be incredibly disruptive to the people that live there.
I am touristing in Japan right now in Tokyo and Osaka. Actually, I haven’t seen many foreigners. There are some, but I only see occasionally
We need to drag Crystal Whatsherface back out to update her 一発屋 gag.
“O-ver-tou-ris-m.
Overtourism”
In fairness, I’ve seen an absolute sh*t-ton of tourists recently (I live around a half hour by train outside the Tokyo Greatest Hits Zone, so I often find myself in the places where you’d expect to find tourists), and I haven’t seen any obnoxious behaviour; mainly people looking lost and staring at the GPS on their phones.
I do however sympathise with the staff at that Lawson (and the neighbouring dental surgery). The moronic, sheeplike, copycat behaviour which is a direct result of social media and the scourge of the modern era, “influencers”, needs to be stamped out hard, fast, and completely. If you can’t behave like a civilised human being, you don’t get treated like one. And for what? A bunch of “likes” for a photo that a) thousands of other people have taken, and b) that you’ll probably never look at again?
The government is clear with their stance. They want more tourists. So do businesses. Look at shareholder complaints about lack of tourist/chinese $$.
Japan needs immigration.
Need to charge for tourist visas. Not a ton, but there’s an amount you could charge such that Japan makes as much revenue as without the upcharge while having fewer tourists here
I think Japan and it’s people need to come to terms that transitioning into a tourism economy is for the best. Let’s be honest, Japanese manufacturing is dying and there will be a brain drain because capable people will prefer to earn stronger currency overseas. Interestingly, I think many will be happier with the option of being in the service industry than having office jobs.
Should have kept anime under wraps. Hah
Second time I’ve seen this post today. I’ve traveled the world, and when there was friction, I assumed the problem was my lack of understanding. I certainly didn’t expect the citizens to change their behavior to suit my desires. This title should probably read, “Tourism is booming in Japan, and the tourists are not handling it well.”
Give it 1-3 years and it will be about foreigner migration, 10-15yrs and it will be about half japanese making a percentage in the population.
My wife and I have visited as tourists 4 times in the last 7 years. We both have basic Japanese conversation understanding.
We both feel pretty disgusted with the recent tourist behaviour, and feel guilty for being tourists ourselves.
It feels that since the pandemic Japan has become a play-pen for idiots who’s lack of understanding or respect for the country and the people in it (mostly for social media clout) is getting out of hand.
Last time we visited (April 2024) we witnessed a Geisha being harassed on the street for photos, my SIL stood in the way of the cameras so the Geisha could escape. She herself then became verbally abused.
Tourism is a luxury which so few realise, maybe its time it should be taken away for the misbehaving?
What is with all the anti-tourists hysteria? The number of tourists visiting Japan is still BELOW pre-pandemic levels by the way.
This all feels very xenophobic.