Japan’s Tourist Problem

As of 2024 Japan is one of the most popular tourist destinations with Tokyo being the MOST popular city to visit. Japan has seen millions of tourists this year already with plenty more to come, but among these millions of tourists are some that have caused a good deal of trouble.

Today we are going to talk about some of the bigger stories involving tourists in Japan. The takeaway from this video should be to respect the people and places you visit. If you visit Japan this year or anytime in the future do not end up in one of these news stories.

Use code FIRST15 for 15% off your order at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mikanclothing.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Check out my podcast:
/ @helloharem2775

this year Japan has seen more than 8 million visitors and in the month of March alone with over 3 million and projections are upwards of 31.9 million for 2024 Japan is one of the most popular tourist destinations of the Year according to Trip Adviser Tokyo is the number one travel destination for foreign visitors this is great and all but with an influx of tourists also comes an influx of problems these are just a hand of some of the instances that have occurred in the year of 2024 with foreign Travelers Lawson’s Mount Fuji wall tourists are flocking to a law sense in kucho to get an iconic picture of Mount Fuji a wall has since been put up to block The View due to the high amount of people obstructing the locals the recently popular video of the woman chasing the Geisha in Kyoto come men Kyoto blocking roads and Alleyways in April Kyoto began restricting tourists to some private alleys in the guon district due to overcrowding and bad behavior the areas that are off limits have been marked with signs stating that the road is off limits and come to a fine of almost 10,000 Yen the drone over Tokyo Tower an American was flying their drone under 150 MERS at Tokyo Tower which is off limits it’s also illegal to fly a drone in Tokyo and near Tokyo Tower issues on trains here are just two pictures that I could find of what seems to be not proper etiquette on the trains and those are just the ones that made it into the media now obviously with that many people visiting a new country there’s going to be issues that’s unavoidable people make mistakes accidents happen there’s not really much you can do about it but the issues that we had previously mentioned above are things that can be avoided uh if you’re not a rude jackass when you’re visiting a foreign country or anywhere for that matter you are a visitor and you should treat the people and things around you with respect just because Japan is culturally different from your country does not mean the word respect takes on a different cultural meaning as well respect is respect no matter where you go if you go over to a friend’s house you aren’t leaving your trash all over the place you’re not harassing them for pictures and you certainly won’t be flying your drone illegally over their house they would be pissed off and probably asked you to leave so if it’s not okay to do those things in your country why is it okay to do it somewhere else when we were visiting Japan in April of 2023 the big story which was all over the news was a foreign tourist was confronted by a Japanese woman and I guess he knocked something out of her hands so instead of maybe apologizing or just kind of talking it out he punched her in the face I don’t know in what world that that’s okay I don’t think that someone would be doing that in their own country and they somehow feel that it’s fine in another country that they’re visiting because there might not be any consequences you know what are they going to do the story that’s been popping up on social media that’s probably one of the most aggravating to watch is the woman harassing the Geisha first of all this was done after they already posted signs about problems with harassment to geishas even before the sign were up it was a known fact that you’re not supposed to take unsolicited pictures of geisha’s walking around in gon apparently this woman could not read or just chose to ignore those simple warnings and she did so anyway it was caught on video and it was one of the most grotesque videos to come out of this in the form of harassment towards aa aa very clearly did not want her picture taken she was changing directions trying to avoid this woman but she was continuously getting in her way to get her action shot picture of the Geisha gisha and Japanese people are not zoo animals you know they’re not there for you to augle at and take pictures I don’t think anybody wants someone in their face taking unsolicited pictures and especially when this gay show was avoiding this woman she was veering different directions it is so mindboggling that she thought that this was okay just because she might be in Japan I cannot imagine imagine her doing this in her home country to anybody even if this woman did not speak any form of Japanese the body language of the gisha should have been enough for the woman to understand oh hey I’m doing something wrong maybe I should not do this but apparently it was not enough she could not comprehend that and she continued doing what she was doing while most of the stories that we do hear coming out of Japan about foreign tourists are bad stories there are still plenty of good tourists and you just don’t hear about those stories but unfortunately a few bad apples can ruin a bunch and if you do go to Japan don’t be one of those bad apples don’t wind up in one of these stories on the internet if you are traveling to Japan this year or any other country for that matter be respectful it’s impossible to keep millions and millions of people in check but you can keep yourself in check by following the rules and doing what you know is the right thing typically this is not the kind of video that we would make or that we should even have to make most of the things that we brought up are just people not thinking they are taking what seems like advantage of the people around them the place that they’re at and just treating it like almost a trash can or it doesn’t matter because they’re just visiting real quick and they can do whatever they want whenever they want to whomever they want these people going on these vacations it might be their vacation of a lifetime but you need to remember that nobody else really cares the the the Japanese person doing his daily life doesn’t care about your vacation it doesn’t matter to him or her you’re the only person that is special to so you don’t need to go around shoving in everybody’s face acting like you’re better than anyone when you’re doing this just be respectful like it’s really not that hard to just follow rules and do things that you would do your normal country somewhere else and while you might not have some of these rules in your country you have to remember that you’re not in your country there are different rules that apply when you travel you need to follow the rules of the country that you’re in and that’s really all there is to say about it just don’t be an [ __ ] it’s a very unfortunate situation with all these things coming to light and it’s been very very bad in the year of 2024 it gives a very terrible image to Travelers going to Japan it creates this atmosphere of apprehension and lowkey xenophobia where these people just assume that all foreign tourists are going to be these disrespectful [ __ ] and that’s not the case but these people doing these things are creating that image and when their stories get huge amounts of traction on social media and the good ones don’t it does paint the image that all foreign tourists are are up to no good or disrespectful when that’s not the case I think we’ll just reiterate if you do travel to Japan or anywhere else for that matter follow the rules be respectful and help paint foreigners and tourists in a better light by following the rules and being respectful that’s really just don’t be a jackass like that’s it just don’t be a jackass yeah it’s it’s easy it’s very easy it is not hard to not be a dumbass it’s common sense don’t be a jackass and don’t disrespect people well that’s all for this video like I said it’s it’s a shame we had to make it because this shouldn’t be happening in the first place but if you enjoyed this video subscribe to skish and um you know don’t be an [ __ ]