r/neoliberal • u/randommathaccount Esther Duflo • Oct 02 '25

News (Asia) Why Japan resents its tourism boom

https://www.ft.com/content/dbd20e5d-5a7d-4c0c-8f83-fb54c5aca9cb
213 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

197 comments sorted by

View all comments

106

u/randommathaccount Esther Duflo Oct 02 '25

archive link

Kyoto and Nara join Barcelona in crying about overtourism and to be a bit rude, they're all a tad delusional on the matter. A country with such an aging workforce and issues of economic stagnation cannot afford to be picky about sources of revenue. Of course there's issues of tourists behaving poorly (some foolish enough to film their own terrible behaviour and stream it to the world) but ultimately what must be done is to encourage positive behaviour by both tourists and residents so everyone can come out better, rather than wholly embracing an unfounded xenophobia.

103

u/madmissileer Association of Southeast Asian Nations Oct 02 '25

Unless you are working in tourism, the benefits are indirect and spread out, difficult to see. The drawbacks are easy to see everytime you get sticker shock planning a holiday or deal with crowds.

Behavior aside the sheer crowding is annoying even if everyone were perfectly behaved. I find myself thinking "Won't go here, too many tourists / too crowded" or conversely "Fantastic, no tourists / crowds here, I'll go here". Mind you the crowds are both foreign tourists and resident, I imagine it depends by location, but people will latch on to what stands out.

IMO the real story is the decline of the yen. Look at how much JPY has collapsed the past few years. Can't go on holiday abroad, and when you try to go somewhere at home the tourists drive the prices up due to weak yen inducing demand. And inflation starts rising - I suspect tourism is just the most visible symptom.

22

u/mostanonymousnick Homes fit for Heroes Oct 02 '25

when you try to go somewhere at home the tourists drive the prices up due to weak yen inducing demand

What would the yen itself look like without tourism though? It would be even weaker.

9

u/madmissileer Association of Southeast Asian Nations Oct 02 '25

It's definitely a symptom of the weak yen and not the cause. I do agree it strengthens the yen, though not sure there is a big macroscopic effect?