On a spring morning with cherry blossoms in full bloom, Fujiyoshida, JapanArakurayama Sengen Park in..

The influx of tourists, the daily life of the collapsed village, has been plagued by the influx of more than 40 million Japanese citizens a year

사진 확대 AI drew the tourist crowd at the Fuji Mountain photo spot as an image. [Chat GPT]

On a spring morning with cherry blossoms in full bloom, Fujiyoshida, JapanArakurayama Sengen Park in the city. Junichi Horiuchi (54), a civic group leader, went on patrol with his party, giving a polite warning to tourists who deviated from the designated route.

For him, who fell from his bicycle and broke 30 bones last year while trying to avoid a group of tourists trying to take pictures against the backdrop of Mount Fuji, this is not just a service, but an important mission for life and death.

The New York Times reported on the 26th (local time) that Fujiyoshida, a quiet small city with a population of about 46,000, is at the forefront of Japan’s current “overtourism” problem.

Due to the impact of the low yen, the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan as of 2025 was 42 million, doubling from 10 years ago. The atmosphere here, which welcomed tourists as the vitality of the local economy to replace the declining textile industry in the past, has completely changed.

This is because tourists are seriously threatening the daily lives of residents, such as using other people’s gardens as toilets, breaking in without permission, paralyzing traffic, and dumping garbage without permission.

In the end, city authorities took extreme measures this year. The cherry blossom festival, a representative event in the region that has been going on for 10 years, was canceled in a surprise move, saying, “The peaceful lives of citizens are threatened.” It also banned media from filming landscapes, saying it could encourage excessive tourism.

Mayor Shigeru Horiuchi said, “The patience of the residents has reached its limit,” adding, “This decision is not to prevent cherry blossom viewing itself, but rather to disperse tourists from overly crowded areas to other places.”

However, despite the cancellation of the festival, tens of thousands of people are continuing to leave the perfect picture they saw on social media. A tourist from the United States said, “If I can’t capture the beautiful pictures I saw on SNS with my own eyes, there’s no point in traveling.” Some tourists try to respect Japanese etiquette, but the pouring crowds themselves are too much to handle.

The grievances of the local people are growing day by day. Koji Maeda, who moved here in 2000 in search of a quiet environment, said, “I want to move because thousands of people pass in front of my house every day and cross the yard.”

Local merchants also say that the economic benefits are not significant because tourists only take pictures with a nice background and leave quickly, and that a system is needed to help them understand local rules and stay more in the region.

Of course, some are seeking a positive direction. The governor of a nearby temple, Watanabe Eido, emphasized the importance of giving kind guidance and tolerance to foreigners who come to unfamiliar environments.

Horiuchi, who leads the park patrol, is also focusing on informing tourists that this is not just a photo spot but a sacred space. “You have to adapt not only to your own way, but also to the culture and rules of the locals,” he said. “I desperately hope that this place will be preserved cleanly for a long time until my grandchildren’s generation.”