Seven years after uploading what remains one of the most reviled videos in YouTube history, Logan Paul is floating the idea of returning to Japan — but only if he’s invited back. The comment came during a recent livestream with Kick’s Adin Ross, who pitched the idea of a content trip through Japan. Paul paused, smiled, and offered his caveat: “If I go back, and I’m invited back, I’m welcomed back by Japanese people and the country of Japan — we’ll do a stream.”
The Forest, the Fallout and the Apology
When Paul visited Japan in December 2017, he racked up a series of thoughtless and disruptive stunts: throwing persimmons at hotel walls, jumping onto delivery carts and trucks at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market without permission and staging a mock fight while holding raw fish and octopus in the middle of Shibuya’s famous scramble crossing.
Those, however, were just the opening acts.
The real firestorm erupted when he entered Aokigahara, the forest at the base of Mount Fuji, which is known as the leading suicide site in Japan. While there, he filmed the body of a man who had taken his own life. He zoomed in and laughed. At the time, he was wearing a neon green Toy Story hat. And then he uploaded the footage.
The fallout was swift. YouTube issued statements. Brands dropped him. Headlines proliferated across mainstream media. There were apologies, some tears and a temporary withdrawal from the platform.
Paul profited from the scandal — through YouTube ads — as his apology video racked up over 50 million views. That was followed by a suicide prevention PSA and a headline-making pledge to donate $1 million to mental health charities.
Within months, he was back. Rebranded and more media-savvy, he was arguably more successful than ever. He joined WWE, launched an energy drink, started a podcast and dove into crypto. For many of his fans, the scandal became a moral footnote.
In Japan, it remained an open wound that wasn’t properly addressed. He never offered an apology in Japanese, never recognized the cultural weight of what he’d done, never made an effort to understand the language or the country he had disrespected.
When a Country Becomes Content
Paul’s proposed return comes at a time when Japan is visibly straining under the weight of “influencer tourism” — a term that now encompasses everything from food vlogging to livestreamed harassment. Since reopening post-COVID, the country has become one of the most popular destinations for content creators chasing viral footage and cultural clout.
Some arrive with curiosity. Others, like Johnny Somali, show up to provoke, harass and film the fallout for views. This year alone, Kick streamers have been chased out of bars by locals after live-streaming their location and stirring up chaos. One insulted the yakuza and stole an orange from a tree. Another assaulted a volunteer at a local festival.
And then there are creators like PewDiePie, who moved to Japan quietly with his family — a reminder that respect isn’t hard, just rare.
This moment isn’t just about Logan Paul, though. It’s about the broader pattern of content creators who treat Japan not as a nation, but as a mythologized backdrop that exists to be consumed, not understood.
Shrines become props. Markets become spectacles. Cherry blossoms, sushi, cultural artifacts — it all becomes B-roll for creators who don’t bother to learn the language, the history or the basic boundaries of the culture they’re mining for engagement.
Even grief and death becomes content. Paul wasn’t the outlier — he was the prototype. And now, he wants to return. But let’s be clear: Japan never invited him the first time. And it’s not here to complete any influencer’s redemption arc.
AloJapan.com