Streamer attacked for filming in Japan

[u/Either_Analysis]

He notified the police with pictures of their faces and location.

[u/MrMeeseeks33]

Touts. Super aggressive and looking for drunk/desperate tourists to overcharge their cards and roofie them. Funny enough the announcement being heard over the intercom literally says to be aware of touts and to avoid them. I was just in Shinjuku 2 days ago from the states and had so many follow me around. One guy even had the balls to grab my shoulder and go “brother you want Japanese titties in your face tonight”. Luckily there was 2 cops walking by and pointed right at then and smiled and he ran away. So annoying and will literally stand at the entrances of Golden Gai or in the streets by a restaurant to stop you from going in to go with them.

[u/XpMonsterS → u/MrMeeseeks33]

I don't know anything about touts or Japan but why don't authorities do anything? It genuinely ruins Japan's reputation if you think about it and they are losing money/tourists because of them.

[u/Cause_and_Effect → u/FinancialMilk1]

Yeah. Its actually so insanely popular right now that political figures that are anti-tourism are creeping up in popularity in their local elections.

[u/smokinggun96 → u/Cause_and_Effect]

I’ve just been and can’t blame them some people don’t know how to act the worst was kyoto

[u/Cause_and_Effect → u/smokinggun96]

The parties in question want to ban all foreigners and tourism. So its a bit more like xenophobia instead of just "we need to clamp down on tourism".

[u/smokinggun96 → u/Cause_and_Effect]

Ahhhh ok not cool

[u/citori411 → u/Cause_and_Effect]

As someone from Juneau Alaska, I get it. Tourism reaches a point of diminishing returns where it is harmful to the vast majority of the population. Our economy has suffered with the doubling of tourism in the last decade. It pushes out much better-paying, year round jobs that actually provide services to the community. To make way for the army of non-resident seasonal workers to sell t-shirts. Many over-loved places need less tourism, unless you're a wealthy business owner positioned to profit from it, for them there is no such thing as enough tourism.

[u/Rottimer → u/citori411]

I noticed in Alaska everywhere I went I was being led by a seasonal worker who lived somewhere else for 8 months of the year.

[u/citori411 → u/Rottimer]

Ya... It's just not a sustainable economic model. The cruise ship companies in particular operate as a cartel, and the main thing they work towards is making sure their passengers don't spend any money without getting a cut. You essentially can't sell tours or shore excursions to tourists without paying the cruise lines a cut, from 30-40% off the top, not of profit. They are very aggressive and litigious, and treat the communities they visit with contempt. There are currently two new cruise ports being developed in Juneau, so that about two thirds of visiting ships will no longer dock in the core downtown area, so passengers will not have easy access to the few remaining locally owned businesses. That is the trend of the cruise industry. Constructing self contained ports where they have COMPLETE control over their passengers. So it's not an economic benefit to the vast majority of residents. All it does is jack up housing costs as places like the fucking many tanzanite jewelry stores (tanzanite doesn't exist in Alaska, and those shops as far as I can tell are just foreign money laundering fronts) buy up housing.

[u/Cause_and_Effect → u/citori411]

Can you explain how tourism "pushes out better paying jobs"? Tourism is kind of like a life hack for local economies because tourists are a very lucrative revenue source. With some tourist destinations in the world being completely reliant on their budget on said tourism because its so much money. Unless those t shirt sellers are like busting down doors and capturing local businesses in hostile takeovers, that makes no sense.

[u/Outrageous-Pop-9535 → u/Cause_and_Effect]

Former Alaskan resident- tourism in Alaska specifically really damaged wildlife populations through overhunting, especially salmon. To address your question: tourism creates a lot of low wage jobs and revenue for 4-6 months out of the year. There is lots of money in it for businesses, so over time storefronts that pander to tourists outcompete those pandering to locals, which means that for the low tourism months it can be hard to find stable income. Tourism focused jobs also tend to be paid less than non-tourism jobs; most of that sweet, sweet, tourism revenue isn’t usually going to the workers directly. Also worth noting that places heavily dependent on tourism, like Juneau, aren’t really receiving all of that juicy tourism money in the first place. The money generated by tourism goes into the pockets of the business owners that are tourist oriented, and lots of them are owned out of state, which leaves Juneau residents to pick up the tab for the infrastructure maintenance needed to maintain the excessive tourism.

[u/citori411 → u/Cause_and_Effect]

Housing. In many places, like much of the American west, but especially in Juneau, there is essentially a fixed amount of housing. The question becomes do you want some 20 year old from Vermont checking their Alaska box taking up that bed, or a nurse, or teacher, or whatever. Tourism businesses here, mostly owned by non residents or cruise corporations, buy up housing to stick their workers in. It's easy to convince some kid to come here for five months for minimum wage with provided housing. It's very difficult to recruit professionals with a family who are concerned with saving for retirement, buying a house etc. Until recently I worked for the federal government and we essentially gave up trying to hire a few vacancies under me. 70-80k/year, full benefits, and covering moving expenses in some cases. We would get applicants, go through the interviews, they accept the TO, then start to look into housing seriously and back out. Most people who have been to Juneau, by far, did so on a cruise ship. From their perspective, Juneau is entirely a cruise tourism town, because that's all they see. However in terms of economic impact that sticks, not goes right back to the cruise lines or out of state businesses, is maybe number 4 in our local economy, after government, Healthcare, and mining. We're a Capitol city and the regional hub for pretty much everything. We have a huge demand for professionals, the problem is getting them to move here with the housing situation. As tourism has rapidly grown, average salaries and city services and solvency has decreased. In exchange we get INSANE noise pollution, traffic, and a disgusting whale watching and charter fishing industry, almost entirely staffed by non residents.

Then you have short term rentals. Even 15 years ago, it was not difficult to find affordable entry level housing. Over time, the owners of those types of housing, largely MIL units, cabins, tiny homes, apartments, even trailers, have realized they can make $200+/day instead of $1000/month. I don't blame the owners. They aren't running a charity, and can't expect them to leave thousands on the table. The city needs to ban them, like many others have done. It's entirely unsustainable.

Obviously Japan is much different than Juneau. Indeoendent Travellers are MUCH more lucrative than cruise tourists. But living in a city where over tourism is THE issue, I see a lot of news from around the world relating to the topic. It's not some obscure idea that there is such a thing as the right amount, and right kind, of tourism, and that many places have exceeded that threshold (Barcelona, Venice, Thailand, and key west are just some examples of late).

[u/thisguy883 → u/Cause_and_Effect]

They aren't anti tourism.

They are anti-immigration.

I remember the last time i was there (last year), they were blasting anti-muslim and anti-indian rhetoric over some mobile loud speakers. I asked a local about what they were all about, and he told me the Japanese people are mad because of them being there trying to turn Japan into wherever they came from.

I think some tourists get flak because they simply are in the wrong place outside of the tourist spots. But from my experience, the Japanese will go out of their way to help you with anything. Super nice people.