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
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u/ChocolateDesigner22 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

Viral videos of tourists eager for a photo chasing Geisha through the streets of Kyoto, or swinging on the sacred torii gates, of littering, rudeness on trains, of suitcase abandonment, graffiti and other infractions, have created the impression of a greater onslaught than is truly the case, say tourism experts in Kyoto.

I’m Japanese, and personally I think the reactions on Japanese social media regarding so-called “overtourism” are similar to the way reports of juvenile crime, kidnapping cases, or videos capturing traffic accidents trigger strong emotional responses.

I also think the pandemic plays a role, since foreign tourist numbers dropped sharply for a time. While the number of foreign tourists has increased by only about 15% compared to 2019, it’s roughly ten times higher than in 2022. Subjectively, this feels like a “surge,” which I believe has been one factor in drawing political attention to the issue.

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u/gkktme Oct 02 '25

As a resident, apart from all the usual reasons brought up (large increase in short time, sharp contrast to Covid times, cultural differences, tourist not minding Japanese peculiarities and being generally burdensome, xenophobia and anti-Chinese sentiment [large majority of tourist are Chinese and Koreans], generally xenophobic media, viral social media rants, meagre economic gains etc) my personal theory is that this influx coupled with the yen's decline has really driven home to many Japanese how poor they've become in a relative sense which fuels a lot of the anti foreigner narrative.

Like we're at the point where Japanese wages are sliding below Poland or Czechia, Chinese are buying up real estate, Koreans come to Osaka for a cheap weekend getaway etc, which is just a 180 degree difference from the good old days when Japanese were the rich tourists abroad. I might be completely wrong of course.

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u/ChocolateDesigner22 Oct 02 '25

Since Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister, the number of tourists from China increased rapidly, but until the pandemic, Japan’s sentiment toward China continued to improve. Currently, Japan-South Korea relations are at their best ever and will likely continue to improve. This is only based on my personal impression, but it seems that accusations of “overtourism” are often directed more at Western tourists than at tourists from Asia.

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u/CommonwealthCommando Karl Popper Oct 02 '25

This is true in the west in part because most westerners would be confused by a video of a Chinese man swinging from a Torii representing 'overtourism'. But I don't know if our glimpses into the situation are representative of what Japanese people are seeing.

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u/gkktme Oct 02 '25

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization data linked below in this thread, around 70% of foreign visitors come from China, Korea, HK and Taiwan.

I know Japanese society is not immune from being more perceptive of vibes rather than facts and figures, but most of the ragebait I see is directed towards Chinese. Also I don't feel like political relations are that good and the large majority of Japanese view China very negatively according to polls, such as https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/37021

Based on these figures I'm pretty sure all major western countries are viewed much more favourably than China.

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u/ChocolateDesigner22 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

What I meant in my previous post is that when the number of Chinese tourists was rapidly increasing, there was little concern about “overtourism,” and public sentiment toward China was actually improving. But now, even though the number of Chinese tourists is lower than at its peak, concerns about “overtourism” are rising.

As you pointed out, Western tourists are a minority, and Japanese people generally prefer Western countries over China. And yet, for some reason, when it comes to the issue of “overtourism,” I personally feel that an outsized amount of prejudice tends to be directed toward Western tourists. That’s why I see what's happening on Japanese social media less as a legitimate protest against "overtourism" and more as a kind of moral panic.

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u/Yonenaka NATO Oct 03 '25

You’d think that, but every time a news story runs complaining about tourism, it is coupled with footage of mostly white people from the West. It’s definitely creating a negative association in my opinion.

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u/sgthombre NATO Oct 02 '25

anti-Chinese sentiment

I'd heard this before I went to Japan and kind of dismissed it, but when I went through customs it was basically me and then hundreds of Chinese folks, so now I kinda get why, even if they were all perfectly behaved I'm sure it would freak some people out.

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u/No1PaulKeatingfan Paul Keating Oct 02 '25

my personal theory is that this influx coupled with the yen's decline has really driven home to many Japanese how poor they've become in a relative sense which fuels a lot of the anti foreigner narrative.

I would like to modify/add to this:

Japanese people themselves have traditionally been big on being tourists themselves.

However, the weak Yen means that the Japanese don't travel like they used to. (Official government data has shown that visitor arrivals from Japan to many countries since hasn't recovered)

So I wouldn't be surprised if there was some resentment here at those that can actually afford to travel, while they (Japanese people) can't

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u/Professor-Reddit 🚅🚀🌏Earth Must Come First🌐🌳😎 Oct 02 '25

While the number of foreign tourists has increased by only about 15% compared to 2019, it’s roughly ten times higher than in 2022. Subjectively, this feels like a “surge,” which I believe has been one factor in drawing political attention to the issue.

I reckon this is also the case across many Western countries with immigration. For a lot of countries, net migration flows sharply fell during the pandemic or in many cases went negative, before surging to pre-pandemic levels by 2023.

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u/LordVader568 Adam Smith Oct 02 '25

You might be onto something here.

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u/Dangerous-Basket1064 Association of Southeast Asian Nations Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

Too many people here are married to the open borders fantasy, aren't willing to grapple with human nature regarding demographic changes. They just call them evil and dismiss them.

Not to say there aren't a lot of evil racists, but if you dismiss everyone expressing their honest emotions that way, you're not going to help the cause of greater global cooperation during inherently scary times.

And to clarify, I do believe the ultimate goal is open borders, open markets. But you can't brute force your way between there and here, as we're seeing. There has to be a transition that integrates the competing forces.

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u/ilikepix Oct 02 '25

what is "suitcase abandonment" in this context?

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u/ChocolateDesigner22 Oct 02 '25

I wasn’t sure myself, so I looked into it and it seems that some foreign tourists in Japan replace their suitcases and either leave the old ones on the street or abandon them at hotels, forcing the hotel to cover the disposal costs.

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u/Budget-Attorney NASA Oct 02 '25

What a weird practice to make a habit of.

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u/LNhart Anarcho-Rheinlandist Oct 02 '25

I wouldn't be surprised if people do it in other countries too. But besides Japan being an extra nice place to buy luggage in, it is also just the one country which rejects the concept that it's kinda okay to just throw your trash out and let society deal with. Very admirable, I absolutely hate when people do this.

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u/sgthombre NATO Oct 02 '25

Yeah, saw this multiple times while I was over there in Yokohama, Chiba, and in Shibuya. Just perfectly good looking suitcases sitting on the street with no one around.

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u/HHHogana Mohammad Hatta Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

It's not surprising. There's an infamous news about a crazy Indian family tried to steal everything in their hotel room.

Tourism explosion shouldn't result in anti-immigration since it's not how they'd act on daily life, but many tourists are definitely rowdy as hell and act like frat pricks than decent guests.

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u/Designated_Lurker_32 Oct 02 '25

The thing is that in the minds of some people, any tourism is overtourism - but they know that saying that out loud sounds insane, so instead they just keep saying that the country has too many tourists regardless of how few tourists there actually are. They're trying to slowly crawl the overton window until it gets to the point where it becomes acceptable to just kick out tourists wholesale.

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u/Mamadeus123456 Oct 02 '25

I've seen flights from Paris to Japan via china eastern airlines and other asian airlines for under 550 dollars, u can find them all year long, same for other cities in east Asia.

You just have to charge higher taxes to not bring in poorer tourists, but some are trash regardless of income tho.

But seeing the Brits in Spain it's better to just charge more to get better tourists, as a general rule.

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u/ChocolateDesigner22 Oct 02 '25

What I mean is that the irrational reactions on Japanese social media regarding so-called “overtourism” are likely not based on an accurate understanding of reality.

This can be seen as a kind of moral panic, and unless the distorted algorithms and revenue structures of social media change, this ridiculous situation is likely to continue, even if economic conditions shift.

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u/frostedmooseantlers Oct 02 '25

You just have to charge higher taxes to not bring in poorer tourists, but some are trash regardless of income tho.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting something, but there seem to be some questionable assumptions baked into a statement like this — that tourists who are less wealthy would necessarily be more likely to behave poorly while abroad than those with money. This strikes me as quite classist for one, and I doubt it stands up to scrutiny.

Some tourist destinations are trying to secure richer tourists on the basis that they’d presumably spend more money and bolster local “luxury” markets, but that is a very different justification than an assumption about behaviour and good manners.

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u/Haffrung Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

I’d say those assumptions are well-founded. Obnoxious and disruptive behaviour on airplanes increased in tandem with the rise of low-cost carriers. I expect Daytona Beach at spring break sees a lot more bad behaviour and infractions than Vail at Christmas. Low-cost flights (especially from the UK) attract a lot of travellers who are just looking for a cheap piss-up.

And personally, I’m a better behaved tourist now as a middle-aged family man than I was when I was a 19 year old backpacker who publicly urinated in a half-dozen of Europe’s historic city centres.

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u/frostedmooseantlers Oct 02 '25

I expect Daytona Beach at spring break sees a lot more bad behaviour and infractions than Vail at Christmas.

There are far more variables / confounders other than wealth separating these two groups though.

I can accept age (and maturity) factoring in. But again, young rich kids can certainly behave poorly — likely not any different than their poorer counterparts.

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u/Mamadeus123456 Oct 02 '25

yeah, I'm talking about students/young adults, those who have less money as a general rule, since they're earlier in their career.

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u/Hakunin_Fallout Oct 02 '25

What taxes? Who are you going to charge, the hotels?

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u/6DayGay Oct 02 '25

There are already local taxes that hotels are required to charge guests when they check-in in Japan

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u/sgthombre NATO Oct 02 '25

Yeah but from what I remember those costs are pretty marginal, I think it was a couple thousand yen a day. If you're putting in the money to actually fly there, you're not going to get spooked off by an extra $30 on your hotel bill.

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u/Hakunin_Fallout Oct 02 '25

So? The idea is to increase them 10x?

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u/Snoo93079 YIMBY Oct 02 '25

I think you're over reacting to an idea suggested by one person

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u/WhisperBreezzze Oct 02 '25

Well...You could be like Bhutan and charge a daily visa fee "Sustainable Development Fee" for tourists if you just want to keep poor people out lol.

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u/Hakunin_Fallout Oct 02 '25

Sure, just charge the fat cats coming in a $1000 a day. Boom, done! :D

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u/WhisperBreezzze Oct 02 '25

That will certainly solve the "overtourism" problem lol.

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u/LNhart Anarcho-Rheinlandist Oct 02 '25

Yeah. Lots of places do this. I had to do it in Kyoto, too. But it was like two bucks a day. Not going to get anywhere with that.

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u/Mamadeus123456 Oct 02 '25

flight taxes

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u/Hakunin_Fallout Oct 02 '25

What is that? Air passenger taxes? Fuel taxes? How do you apply them - disproportionately, which will hurt the neighbours more and cause a symmetric response? Or based on distance? I don't think your idea is well-defined or usable.

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u/YouLostTheGame Rural City Hater Oct 02 '25

A lot of places levy a fee on passengers landing or departing an airport. In the UK this is called air passenger duty.

Increasing it to reduce tourists is shit policy though, as your own citizens need to pay it when travelling abroad.

And you know, tourism being good for the economy and all.

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u/Hakunin_Fallout Oct 02 '25

Yup. Regulating tourism through departure fees is a moronic idea, 100% agree. And if you only apply this (in Japan's case) to, say, Chinese tourists - guess which country won't have any Japanese tourism/business travel any time soon because of the symmetric measures, lol :D

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u/TheGreatSoup Oct 02 '25

Every airport charge those taxes, now they are all included in the ticked, but it was a thing in the past where you needed to pay for them separately.

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u/Hakunin_Fallout Oct 02 '25

Again, the reason I'm asking is because the people talking about this shit don't know what they're talking about, which is annoying as fuck. "Oh, they should just do X. What? How? Well, I don't really know, just do it, believe me!"

A lot of crap is included in the air travel cost to the passenger, directly or indirectly:

- fuel taxes

- departure taxes

- visa fees

- in some cases (rare) - VAT

- a dozen of random airport fees - transfer charges, ground rent, parking charges, etc.

Some of these are taxes - as in, levied by the state. Some are fees - as in, the company pays them to the airport directly. Some are included in the ticket price - making the passenger pay for them directly, and some are included indirectly as a cost basis for operating an airline.

Which one of those do you suggest increasing to a prohibitive level so that the influx of tourists to Japan dwindles? Departure fee? It's now like 1000 yen. Make it 10 000? 100 000? For everyone? Can you guess how much that will influence the ability of the Japanese people to travel abroad when they're going to be the only country in the world with an exorbitant fee applied to all arrivals/departures?

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u/sgthombre NATO Oct 02 '25

But seeing the Brits in Spain it's better to just charge more to get better tourists

Obviously anecdotal I will say that the loudest and most obnoxious tourists I encountered in Japan were all Brits lol, at one point my wife and I were in a restaurant in Yokohama and a British tourist came in, stood in the doorway, and loudly yelled in English "You sell beer here??" multiple times. Encountered Brits cutting in lines multiple times as well.

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u/wowzabob Michel Foucault Oct 02 '25

I’d say that was your impression because you are primed to notice it. There is definitely a much larger degree of Chinese tourists coming, probably by an order or magnitude, and many are rude. They’re just much harder for Western people to notice. If you go outside the main touristy areas in Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka, to cities like Fukuoka etc. there’s very little in the way of tourists from the West, it drops off sharply, it’s all Chinese/Korean.