The number of other people who visited Japan reached record titles in 2024, however, major destinations on the “golden road” such as Kyoto and Osaka are suffering from overcrowding. If existing trends aren’t sustainable, where else are people going?Adam Withnall Withnall Withnall Tokyo Reports

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When a Chilean woman posted a video on Instagram of herself doing chin-ups on a sacred torii gate at a Japanese shrine, the backlash was almost immediate. For many in Japan this was just the latest example of tourism gone wrong – of foreign visitors with no interest in understanding the local culture using their country as a playground.

International tourism to Japan has exploded in recent years, and while the official figure for 2024 is yet to be released it is now certain to be a new record in excess of the 31.9 million who visited in 2019 before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rise corresponds with an intensification of clashes between locals and foreigners, from monuments and shrines defaced by graffiti to the decision to cover the views of Mount Fuji after they went viral online. Japan has yet to experience the same anti-tourist backlash that Tenerife did last summer, where protesters clashed with tourists over their beach towels, but there are fears that the scene could move in that direction if those cultural conflicts are not resolved.

As popular towns like Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka are flooded through crowds of vacationers, especially the cherry blossoms of Spring’s Sakura and the golden colors of Fall, the Japanese government is now asking foreign visitors to travel through peak periods and get off the beaten track. – and respect local customs.

Even the Japanese government taken to astonishment through the accelerate building on foreign visits; He broke his purpose of recovering the pre-pandemic tourism titles until 2025. In interviews with the independent in Tokyo, government officials and industry leaders have admitted that existing tendencies are not durable.

The Japan Tourism Agency, the government company responsible for the country’s tourism strategy, has published a new seven-point advisory on “travel etiquette,” asking foreign visitors to inform themselves about local customs before traveling, which “pay attention to your manners” and stay in Japan, and “respect cultural property” by adding temples and shrines.

Japan prides itself on its hospitality, and nowhere is this more clear than in the cultural practice of tea ceremonies. Highly formal and imbued with meaning, the simple act of offering a guest green matcha tea has been honed into an art form over centuries, even splitting off into different styles and schools of thought.

Alpha Takahashi works as a translator at the Tokyo Grand Tea Ceremony and explains the importance of passing the procedure to English-speaking tourists. She is a professional voice actress founded in Los Angeles, but returns to Japan twice a year to help her mother, a tea-rite sensei.

Organizers tell The Independent that the event has become increasingly popular in the 15 years since it launched, taking second place and promoting tickets in advance. Settsuko Yukawa, curator at the Tokyo Arts Council, says it’s a chance for foreign tourists to “feel the hospitality of the Japanese. “

Takahashi says that in the first years of the event, foreign visitors were more commonly visitors to the embassies. Now we can see tourists making long lines in the gardens of Hama-rrikyu, hoping to release tickets, and she says she meets visitors from all over the world who have “planned their trip to Japan according to that” .

Like many facets of life in Japan, tea rite occasions are well-organized, structured, and neat. But other popular tourist destinations have struggled to cope with the influx of visitors, and tourism has injected unwanted chaos into the lives of locals.

Kyoto commuters will have to fight for space with tourists using their luggage on the overcrowded bus network, and the local government installed panels earlier this year to block views of Mount Fuji after the people of Fujikawaguchikik lost patience with the tourists who dumped their waste in the waste in the waste. path. In a modest Lawson convenience store.

Many restaurants in Japan are small, family-owned businesses that serve a handful of tables at a time. The owners may not speak English and may be wary of serving foreign consumers who do not understand what they are ordering. -Online reviews for many restaurants, even in Tokyo or Kyoto, show examples of disgruntled tourists who have just refused door service.

The overcrowding of the top popular destinations encourages tourists to seek quieter and more enriching cultural alternatives, especially a moment or third visit.

“We see in the news that grandmothers and grandfathers can’t get on the bus in Kyoto, and it’s heartbreaking,” Takahashi says. “But at the same time . . . I’m very grateful to the other people who have been here before and revel in it, who are now making a moment saying, “Okay, take a step back and let’s delight in Japan in a Otherwise, let’s move on to Puts where we haven’t been passed.

In the Tourism Agency of Japan, officials know that immediate entry is problematic.

“Yes we have concerns about overtourism,” says Shota Adachi, deputy director of the agency’s strategy planning division. “If too many people are coming and then the locals are not feeling well, [feeling] uncomfortable, that’s also not sustainable.”

He says that the government is still officially attached to a target of receiving 60 million foreign tourists annually until 2030, however, that this will only be viable if they can be distributed, either geographically across the country and year, adding the delay of the season.

“What we need to do is check to restrict the number of visitors, [the message is] ‘don’t come to Japan anymore,'” he says. “It’s about checking out to spread demand.

“The important thing for Japan is to try to distribute tourists in local spaces, apart from places like Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka. There are also many other interesting places . . . Attracting more tourists to these spaces is something that will obtain advantages not only in cities, but also in rural places. “

Akan, Hokkaido “will shape more tourist guides, a wonderful place for adventure tourism”

Recommended via Kuniharu Ebina.

Kusatsu and Ikaho are cities onkio available as opportunities for the most famous Hakone. Those who cannot go further, visit Beppu onsen and dopass onnen in ita and Ehime, respectively.

Recommended via Shota Adachi

Isa, Kagoshima Tourists can experience farming and cooking local produce in Japan’s rice-bowl

Recommended through Kuniharu Ebina.

Iya Valley, Tokushima thatched farms, hot springs and a historic wine bridge in one of Japan’s most remote mountainous regions

Recommended through Kuniharu Ebina

Shirakawa-gō is a small historic town about an hour’s drive from Kanazawa

Recommended by Alpha Takahashi

A vital component of the solution, he says, is made up of older foreign visitors with no room for how they intend to behave in Japan, hence the new label consultant. The consultant can also be shown in a form or some other plane for Japan, along with more familiar safety videos at the start of flights. “This is anything we would possibly paint on,” Adachi said.

Another option under discussion would be to charge foreigners more to make a stopover at the most popular sanctuaries, spas and cities. These taxes are paid through the local authorities, and some have to increase the rates of the tax on accommodation or the use of onsen, hot spring baths. However, these are general costs and do not apply to other degrees for foreigners.

The mayor of Himeji, whose castle is one of the most iconic in the country, has sparked a national debate by suggesting a higher right of access for foreign visitors – arguing that the revenue would help pay locals and more equitably distribute monetary benefits of tourism. Training

Ryo Nishikawa, an associate professor at Rikkyo University’s School of Tourism, is more of a move to qualify foreign tourists more, or to bill them with strict commands upon arrival in the country. Both threaten Japan’s welcoming reputation, he suggests.

Instead, he believes Japan exploits the concept of Machizukuri – literally the “creation of the neighborhood” – the concept of other local people protecting their own heritage and way of life. The more tourists can deviate from big cities to see more of Japan overall, he says, offers a more original and less crowded experience while helping to sustain rural communities.

“In rural areas, the population is decreasing,” he says. “We want to use tourism to revitalize those areas. . . use the benefits of tourism to maintain cultural heritage and [at the same time] open safe cultural homes for tourists. “

Thinking outside the box is, by definition, a more complicated prospect for those contemplating booking theirs to Japan: first-time visitors in particular are much more likely to follow the so-called “golden road” from Tokyo to Mt. Fuji, Kyoto and ending in Osaka.

This is where a professional can provide added value, says Kuniharu Ebina, president of the Japan Association of Travel Agents.

He points to figures that show just how tightly concentrated foreign tourists are in a very small number of places, and compare that to Japanese domestic tourists who, exploring their own country, are spread out through its different regions much more evenly.

“Japanese people know many charming parts of Japan that foreigners don’t,” he says. “There is still more we can do, as the tourism industry [to announce this information]. We also apply to provide new information for foreign tourists, such as integrating local activities and food into tours. »

The truth is that disorders related to superpoleism will probably only worse before they improve; With the weak yen that make the most affordable visits, a new record is expected to establish this year.

Professor Nishikawa points out that the dramatic construction in incoming tourism has an update of the update of the value of foreign flights, which makes vacations even more beloved for the same Japanese. It is natural, it suggests that such dynamics can simply turn public opinion into the opposite of tourists. not correctly controlled.

It’s up to the government to show the Japanese public why tourists supply a network to gain benefits for the country, he says, and only in terms of the money they spend.

“Japan just started globalisation in the tourism industry, while other countries started earlier and are therefore more experienced,” he says. “We should also learn from [what’s happening in] other countries.”

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