Edging Toward Japan: The problem of over-tourism in Japan is founded on a historical misconception – The Mainichi

14 comments

1. you’re doing WHAT toward Japan????

2. Decent enough article, but the author’s writing style leads me to believe that he enjoys long sunny afternoons of sniffing his own farts.

3. Terribly written article.

   The point seems to be “Kyoto and Tokyo are nice, but they’re only famous because they were important population centers historically”.

   Yeah, we get that. What the Japanese government needs to do is figure out how to attract people elsewhere, not get mad that popular places are popular.

4. Dude who’s rich enough to go to foreign countries multiple times wonders why people who can only really afford to go to Japan once in their lifetime are going to the places with the most things to see.

5. >A key reason for this is tied up in Japan’s history, which has seen repeated attempts to create a centralized nation state asserting control over breakaway, rebellious provinces.

   This is an enlightening take. The ‘defining’ sights of Japan are in places where, historically, leaders sought to consolidate power and create symbols of national identity. People obviously want to go there.

   Fixing overtourism surely doesn’t involve resolving 2,000 years of Japanese identity issues though? In practice, tourists head to the same spots because they’re looking at the same travel guides (Japan Guide, JNTO, some local tourism operators) and all get recommended the same stuff, and that stuff has the best transport access. The roots of the issue may be historical, but modern-day, it just seems like an SEO problem.

6. It seems like most of the tourists’ here could care less. Japan is a very cheap and relatively easy place for a holiday for most. Look at the quality of tourist recently, they’re not exactly here for the culture and historical stuff. More like cheap food and booze and wandering aimlessly outside in 38 degrees looking for a bloody convenience store. You can analyze it all day ffs but the reality is it’s cheap, pretty clean and safe.

7. Stop kink-shaming

8. FWIW, we enjoyed Hokkaido more than Kansai. For one thing it was much less densely populated. The seafood in Hakodate was much better than in Tokyo or Osaka, not that it was bad there, but it seemed to be fresher and prepared in a way we preferred. The same with the lamb bbq and the Sapporo Ramen. We just liked it better.

9. Lol as if most people visiting just dont go to:

   US – NY, LA, LV, disneyworld (what about Alabama or Nebraska)

   UK – London (no one wants to see Bristol??)

   France – Paris (Nice is nice too)

   Germany – N/A (lol)

10. Top 10 more obnoxious and pedantic articles about Japan.

11. Im only going because its cheap. Otherwise I would visit different countries. Also for some reason australia always has sales to fly to japan. So you can go back and forth for $400

12. People that come to Japan to see its sights are most likely totally clueless about Japan’s ancient history. A lot of people coming don’t even know the history concerning Japan from ww2.
    Article was made so he could see himself talk outside of his head on paper

13. Terrible Article

    “Weak yen has made Japan the next Thailand” -tourist I met a few weeks back

14. So my wife and I are in Japan now for the first time as I read this. This article is just clickbait, ragebait, and classist garbage.

    I’m sure there are plenty of beautiful and amazing things we will not have time for outside of the usual attractions, but we only have so long and what we already knew about Japan attracted us to see those particular things. We don’t give a flat fuck what anyone thinks of us for that as long as we are respectful of the culture and don’t get in anyone’s way, this writer can eat my whole ass.

    Going anywhere is expensive now. People want to see what other’s have told them was fun and interesting. None of these tourists and “other people” think of themselves that way. They all just want a good experience for the money. If this writer gave a real fuck about this issue than the article would be a travel guide titled “X places to visit in Japan that you may not know about” and would contain real information and hype that might lead to motivation to visit those places.

    Instead it’s a braindead old-man-on-porch type complaint just bitching about how much better they are than “other people”.

    It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. The government, travel vlogs, whatever. If you arent coming to Japan to live here, and are spending a week or two, you have to try and have the best and easiest trip with the info you already have. It is not a more complex issue than that. We can only appreciate so much without spending 8 years learning the language and living. The context of short term visits does NOT demand more investment than that here or anywhere.

    You don’t see me bitchin’ about Toronto tourists crowding the elevator of the CN tower. And I certainly wouldn’t stick my nose up at them for not spending their travel expenses and short time on a prairie farm in Saskachuan instead for a more genuine Canadian experience.

    Fuck anyone who would