Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is Overtourism in Japan Real and Why is Japan Mad at Tourists?
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malvarez1
Posts: 2140 |
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It always me die a little inside when I see one of those cringey videos on Twitter of clueless tourists acting rowdy in Japan. It’s good to know this isn’t the majority, but still frustrating.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4655 |
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So much of it feels like it should be pretty obvious since it follows a general theme of acknowledging that there are other people besides yourself. I could see somebody maybe not realizing they shouldn't eat on the commuter train like that, but then again, the chance of dropping something onto another person is high enough that it isn't a great idea in the first place.
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dreamingsamurai
 Posts: 39 Location: Fairfax, VA |
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I'd probably add to the list of "do nots", to not treat torii gates as some sort of playtoy that makes international news, like the two cases we had in the past two months:
Chilean woman slammed over viral clip of pullups on torii shrine gate https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/17/japan/chilean-woman-torii-shrine/ American tourist arrested for allegedly defacing gate at Tokyo shrine https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/15/travel/american-tourist-arrested-tokyo-shrine-gate-intl-hnk/index.html The latter was of a 65 year old who carved the initials of his family on the torii of Meiji Shrine of all places. 
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Lactobacillus yogurti
 Posts: 857 Location: Latin America |
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Whenever I think that humanity couldn't get any worse... They show they can reach new depths to their idiocy.
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Cho_Desu
 Posts: 242 |
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I assume the exception to this rule is the shinkansen bullet train, where it always seemed common for folks to buy a bento box to enjoy along the way. You're going to have your own seat airplane-style there though. At any rate, rowdy tourists is a fact of life in any popular city to visit, but they'll stand out a lot more in Japan than most other countries. You'll have to ask your more extrovert friends to act a little more introverted while out and about. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2314 Location: Online Terminal |
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The shinkansen is a different class of transportation compared to your usual bus or subway train. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 4655 |
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Yes, the shinkansen is closer to a plane in terms of what is allowed. The assigned seats with trays means you're a lot less likely to have a mishap that bothers another person compared to being crammed into a commuter train. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6455 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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It's certainly not an exaggeration about Japan's overtourism problem, and Japan's not the only one. I can also confirmed that South Korea are also having overtourism problem too (NHK World ironically has reported on this), which is not a big surprise given the worldwide mainstream popularity of K-pop, K-drama, webtoon/manhwa, and anything Hallyu. But I'll end it here and go back to Japan.
Yes, I already know about Japan's (& Korea's) overtourism problems before this Answerman article came to existence. couple of mainstream media have reported on it like CNBC News, Kyodo News Agency, and Nippon TV News Japan 24 has this video that reported on that including the Mt. Fuji train track blocking fiasco. But I want to point out and address these in the Answerman article:
Well, wait until you hear about what this Japanese tourist did to a Korean taxi driver while vacationing in South Korea (this was from 2022, BTW). I remember a few years back, one person expressed on a comment (I don't remember what website it was, it could've been a Reddit, or something else, but I didn't bookmark this website prior to this Answerman article) that usually Japanese are the most polite people out there, but when it comes to Japanese people vacationing or being a tourists outside of Japan/Asia, they act no different from other rude tourists out there. Again, rude tourists can be anyone regardless of what countries they're from, or what ethnicities they are.
That sounds a lot like how we as in US/American tourists (the rude ones) would behave in foreign countries (that include in Europe, & UK is not an exception), and even on the cruise ship trips, you'll have a lot of rude tourists on there too. So if you're traveling in international/foreign countries, expect rude and inpolite tourists, they really come with the territory of either being a local residents, or if you're a traveler/tourists. We can't eliminate rude tourists permanently, but you just need to have a better system, and I hope to goodness, the tourists are mature enough to have a decent etiquettes to respect a country's culture and their belief. And I'll end it here. Disclaimer: I have traveled to several foreign countries. In the past, I have traveled to Asia (ie: Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and I have not visited Japan except as a passer-by), Caribbean (both resorts, and cruise), Mexico (when I was a kid), and Canada. I have wanted to visit Japan, & Europe in the past, but given the overtourism problem and the resentment towards them, I may have to scale back a bit. |
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kouga88
 Posts: 11 |
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Probably could make a whole section about influencers too. While not every nightmare tourist story you hear is about an influencer acting obnoxious for the sake of clout and views overseas, the majority of them are. There are some that actively go out of there way to harass or break the "societal rules" while filming people to draw outrage clicks and views since even hate views are views for these people.
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 551 Location: Poland |
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Some of that does look like too strict for me, like here in Poland eating in bus maybe isn't too cool, but on the street it's pretty much fine, and talking on phone or loudly is common (if sometimes, but rarely annoying) basically everywhere. If you're in a room, people will often go out to the hall to finish talking, but there is no restriction when it comes to bus or street. I guess church is a place where you will really get angry looks. I think we're rambunctious society though, and we don't have the same living density as Japan or Korea. |
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WizardOfOss
 Posts: 94 Location: Oss, Netherlands |
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Last week returned from my 20th trip to Japan, and apart from some parts of Osaka (Dotombori used to be fun but is hell now....) at the start of my trip and maybe a few in Tokyo at the end, didn't experience any overtourism at all. Yes, overtourism definitely is a thing, but only in very few places. In 99% of the country they still welcome every tourist, while most tourist just go to the 1% of places they've seen on social media. While Himeji is considering charging tourists 4 times as much as locals for their castle, at many places in Shimane and Tottori I got up to 50% discount just for being a foreign tourist. Yet hardly anyone is going there...
As for those do's and don'ts: It's all about using common sense and not being an a**hole. Which unfortunately is pretty hard for some people. It would probably help a lot if they would just ban all tourists from one certain country... |
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Netero
Posts: 173 |
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Surprised there was nothing in the Do's and Don'ts about PDAs. I'll never forget the look of sheer disgust on the face of the poor guy at a JR enquiry desk as this couple standing near him started a makeout session.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2981 |
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Japan features a lot in the bucket lists of many travellers, and the country being cheaper than it's ever been in decades coupled with stronger cultural export compared to its bubble period doesn't make it a surprise some areas like Kyoto and Tokyo have more foreigners than there ever were in years past. And with more visitors, probability effectively guarantees some of them are the dregs of humanity who somehow have the money to make the trip. Enough to force the locals to put up temporary screens to block up popular tourist photo-op hotspots because they're a public danger to locals.
Yet the country is more than just its bucket list of tourist hotspots, and visitors can travel to more remote areas where the only visitors are locals from different prefectures. Of course it pays to actually speak Japanese for those places, as those places are desperate for more visitors of any type and are very welcoming provided visitors act like civilized humans instead of primates and respect the local rules and customs. It's a rule which applies not just to Japan, but all over the world and has done so ever since international leisure travel became widespread for the masses. About the article, how on earth does it say "Southeast Asia has the largest group of tourists post-pandemic" and then promptly lists South Korea in North East Asia as its top visitor?! PRC China, Hong Kong and Taiwan aren't in SE Asia either. No doubt plenty of people from ASEAN, but if the statement is to be made at least get the placement right. |
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Zimmer
Posts: 201 |
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Oxymoron or redundant?
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Dumas1
Posts: 86 |
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Anyone remember that case from the 90s where an American in Singapore was sentenced to a caning for chewing gum? That's a bit extreme, but some people only learn to act civilized after seeing consequences for not doing so.
Some of the "Do's & Don'ts" list comes down to different standards of etiquette, but most of this stuff isn't ok to do at home. There seems to be something about paying to be somewhere that makes people go a bit crazy. Airplanes, restaurants, fan conventions, other countries, there've been a lot of stories the last few years about people just not controlling themselves when they leave the house. |
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