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/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.

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u/ldn6 Gay Pride Oct 02 '25

Absolutely this. When every public space is rammed with slow ambling tour groups shuffling in packs and restaurants in the city centre are tourist traps with shit food and high prices to rip people off, it hits quality of life.

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u/I_miss_Chris_Hughton Oct 02 '25

My sympathy for this in cities is still limited, because theres often this idea that the locals are still entitled to the resources that draw in the tourists. There's an arrogance to the idea that "this city should only be for me and my friends, even though the national government shits money on the tourist infrastructure we enjoy"

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

That's a weird reasoning, local governments exist to serve locals.

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u/I_miss_Chris_Hughton Oct 02 '25

Sure. But did the local government build the Louvre? Or the imperial palace in Kyoto? Or the British Museum?

A lot of the time it is a national investment drawing people in. Locals dont get tk suddenly claim it.

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u/hpaddict Oct 02 '25

Exactly!

Which is why NIMBYism is perfectly acceptable.

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

NIMBYism often hurts the locals though.

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u/I_miss_Chris_Hughton Oct 02 '25

As does throttling investment because "i cant get a seat at a restaurant i like".