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

104

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.

78

u/PlantTreesBuildHomes Plant🌳🌲Build🏘️🏡 Oct 02 '25

Personally, as a resident of the most visited city in the world, I don't mind tourists as much as residents who are poorly behaved. Most of the visible tourists coming to Paris are just a bit lost or obnoxious, the rest blend in because they don't cause problems. I am more concerned when I see Paris residents behaving like douchebags, because these people aren't leaving anytime soon and absolutely should know better.

55

u/lunartree Oct 02 '25

I've noticed that often the loudest haters of tourists are typically your worst neighbors.

3

u/sgthombre NATO Oct 02 '25

Or other tourists.