mytest
Books, eBooks, and more from Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (click on icon):
UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
DEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
“LIKE” US on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/debitoorg
https://www.facebook.com/embeddedrcsmJapan
http://www.facebook.com/handbookimmigrants
https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseOnlyTheBook
https://www.facebook.com/BookInAppropriate
If you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little donation via my webhoster:
All donations go towards website costs only. Thanks for your support!
Hi Blog. I just got back from a tour in Japan and saw a lot of tourists. “Overtourism is becoming a hot topic. But it threatens to metaphorically “kill the golden goose”. I offer my perspective in my latest SNA column on how even local NJ Residents are falling into the fallacy that tourism is “spoiling” Japan, because countermeasures are threatening to encourage racial profiling against them. Read on. Debito Arudou, Ph.D.
==================================
INTERNATIONAL TOURISM HAS BEEN GOOD FOR JAPAN
Short-sighted criticisms about Japan being “overtouristed” may spoil things. Don’t let the debate backfire into racialized policymaking.
SNA VM 67, June 19, 2025, By Debito Arudou
Courtesy https://shingetsunewsagency.com/2025/06/19/visible-minorities-international-tourism-has-been-good-for-japan/
Last month’s column was late because I just got back from four weeks in Japan. A luxury of academia is that in between semesters I can do long trips. As retirement looms, I’m finding ways to make life not only about work and column writing.
Interestingly, Japan is becoming part of that work-life balance. Like so many other Japan long-termers (such as Donald Keene and Alex Kerr), I’m finding myself living in Japan about twice a year. I like both Japan and US better when I can take a break from each, enjoying the best of both worlds.
The interesting thing I discovered this trip, as the US goes through another periodic isolationist phase, is that Japan in contrast seems to be becoming more accommodating. International tourism is making Japan into a more open society and an easier place to live.
JAPAN IS OLD AND BORING. EXCEPT FOR THE BOOMING TOURIST ECONOMY
When I first arrived in the 1980s, Japan was this forbidding, impenetrable, and “inscrutable” society hidebound to illogical systems. A place with a pervasive “culture of no,” where any new idea was shot down as “lacking precedent.” It certainly spent a lot of energy stymieing young, optimistic, reform-minded young people like me at the time.
But I’m aged 60 now, and finding Japan a lot more cooperative and friendly. Even sensible.
Granted, it helps that I’m fluent in the language, and Japan is inherently geared to serving old people who crave routine and predictability. It prides itself on public transport running on time, social welfare systems being reliable, and government policy being predictable and boring.
I really get that now. Given the decade of constant and wasteful spectacle generated by the Trump Era, not to mention a non-zero chance of outright civil warn in the US, I’m actually craving a boring government.
But one thing is certainly not boring about Japan: the tourist economy.
This, of course, is the product of decades of government programs. “Cool Japan,” “Yokoso Japan,” and “Omotenashi” have had their intended effect. Japan is becoming a major world tourist hub.
This trip I saw a lot of it. In addition to my regular flaneuring around Tokyo, I nipped out to Nagano, Osaka, Nara, Okayama, and Fukuoka. I saw firsthand how Japan is successfully coping with more diversity than ever before—while fighting its reflex to blame foreigners for everything.
JAPAN’S TOURISM IN PERSPECTIVE
The rate of growth of Japan’s tourism from overseas has indeed been startling, tripling from under 10 million to over 30 million foreign visitors in about a decade.
From that has sprung a lot of hoopla about Japan is becoming “overtouristed.” A quick Google will find much griping and sniping: overcrowding, traffic congestion, bad manners, garbage, luggage, noise, intrusive photography, etc. Some even call it an “invasion.”
That’s the blame reflex. But let’s keep things in perspective.
First, Japan is still a relative laggard compared to other countries. It doesn’t even make the top ten. According to World Population Review, the most-visited countries in terms of international tourist arrivals are predicted to be (in descending order, 2024): France, Spain, the US, China, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, Germany, and the UK.
Japan bubbles under at #11. No doubt those rankings will change as the US self-sabotages its tourist economy, but Japan’s numbers are still less than half the totals of each of the top five. And yet they somehow manage their foreigner “invasions” with a lot less grumbling.
Second, it’s important to note that most tourism in Japan does not involve inbound foreigners. According to Statista, more than 80% of tourism in Japan over the past decade has been domestic. So when you talk about a tourist in Japan, they’re overwhelmingly likely to be a Japanese.
That said, that looks to change. For the first time in 2024, record numbers of tourists from overseas made up nearly a quarter of all tourist expenditure, and tourism in general is now a significant part of Japan’s economy. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, successive record-breaking years of tourists now amount to an estimated 7.5% of Japan’s GDP.
This means after more than thirty years of economic stagnation, tourism is the one reliable source of growth and jobs. It’s forecast to account for one in ten jobs in the Japanese workforce by 2034.
RISING TO THE OCCASION WITH CLEAR ACCOMMODATION
Staying three weeks just outside Ginza this trip, I saw for myself the fruits of this tourism boom, and I think Japan is handling it pretty well.
Ginza’s streets and shops were crowded as usual, but this time there was enough ferment of foreign languages around me to make me feel I was back in Europe. Non-Japanese (NJ) were navigating trains, subways, and the shinkansen, and I saw no apparent source of concern. The NJ staff in the name-brand shops and convenience store counters were normal to the point of mundane.
Local businesses and facilities seem to be coping just fine. Along all the major train arteries were multilingual maps and ticketing machines. Food menus, especially at the chain restaurants, were on iPads or via tabletop QR codes in at least four languages. No actual spoken interaction between customer and staff was required for people to get service.
That’s quite a change. Not so long ago, there were frequent cases of establishments with “Japanese Only” signs and rules. Their most common excuse for refusing NJ entry was the presumption of a language barrier. “We don’t speak foreign languages, so we can’t give foreigners good service.” So naturally they gave them no service at all.
Of course, exclusionism still happens (and people still send me “Japanese Only” signs occasionally). But from what I saw, businesses have found a workaround. As they will. The lure of the foreign tourist yen has been irresistible, and it’s knocking down barriers.
Now tourism looks likely to expand beyond the beaten paths. I saw phalanxes of foreign tourists in places as far-flung as Tsuruga. In the backstreets of Ginza, I saw lines around the block for boutique sandwiches and other fad foods that tourists told me they found on Instagram and YouTube. People aren’t just following the tour guide flags. They’re finding their own adventures. Which means the rising tide of tourist funds will incentivize businesses nationwide to lose their exclusionary rules.
BLOWBACK FROM THE LOCALS
Of course not everyone is happy, and one surprising voice of dissent I found were long-term NJ Residents I talked to.
They felt foreign tourists were spoiling things. Echoing the standard complaints that people worldwide always make about tourists (including Japanese tourists abroad a generation ago), they find fewer and fewer “unspoiled” places where they can escape crowds,
That’s why they too support some means to tamp down on foreign tourists. Such as dual pricing. Entry restrictions. Higher entry and exit taxes to deter the onrush.
I asked why they supported charging foreigners extra.
“Because they are causing extra problems. Places have to provide menus and services in other languages. That costs money. Foreigners should foot that bill.”
Me: “So I guess that means you’d be in support of a tax on handicapped people, because one has to provide extra ‘barrier-free’ services to them, yes?” Well, uh, no.
Me again: “And how would you enforce a dual pricing policy? Don’t you think that foreign residents of Japan—like you—and Japanese-citizen Visible Minorities would also wind up being charged extra just because they didn’t look ‘Japanese’ enough?”
They responded with the fact they faced dual pricing structures in other countries. To which I said, “Yes, but you were incoming tourists there. You might think differently if you were a resident of that country and charged more just for looking foreign.”
Some cited Hawaii’s “Kama‘aina” discount for Hawaiian residents as extra pricing for foreigners. To which I said, “But when I was a resident there, I too got the “Kama’aina” discount once I got my Hawaii driver license. So it wasn’t racialized enforcement. It was a matter of residency. It’s not the same system.”
Their grumble would then return to how the tentacles of foreign tourism were killing off their special Japan. Whereupon I noted that, again, most tourism in Japan is still overwhelmingly domestic, done by residents of Japan, including crowds and pollution. We basically hear about foreign culprits because they’re more easily targeted by media. Their retort was basically yeah but still.
That was generally how our conversations went. I politely left unspoken their sense of entitlement—how only they should retain the privilege of visiting a depopulated temple, shrine, or natural area. But if others might wish to have the same experience, that would spoil it. Lucky my friends got there first so they could close the door behind them.
HALF-BAKED ARGUMENTS AND PUBLIC POLICY
Unfortunately, the Japanese Government is falling into similar logical fallacies. Local governments are already instituting higher fees starting in July at some places (such as Hokkaido’s Niseko ski resort), where the policy rubric is “foreign tourist” vs “Japanese residents.” Again, where do foreign residents fall?
As the Japan Times noted on June 5, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering hiking the departure tax (currently levied on Japanese and foreign departer equally) only for foreigners. And it still lumps foreign tourist and NJ Resident together as a single unit. Worse, as usual, lawmakers are explicitly only considering the concerns of “the people (Japanese citizens)” in their policy rhetoric.
Even columnist Gearoid Ready (who generally goes out of his way to defend Japan government policies) in 2024 wrote a Japan times article entitled, “Japan really should charge tourists four times more” and make it a nationwide policy. But then he didn’t include himself as a resident of Japan, and didn’t discuss how this policy would personally affect him.
Again, this isn’t being well thought through. And it’s especially ironic that some of the strongest voices are from by reactionary NJ Residents who are potentially penalizing themselves.
Some of this understandable. With any social change there is going to be fallout and blowback. The point is to make sure that all parties have a voice at the table when crafting public policy to resolve problems. This should include locals, Japanese tourists, foreign tourists, and foreign residents. There should be conscious distinctions between each as interest groups.
It’s also important to remember why we are in this situation. The government and by-and-large the locals wanted this. And they got it. Now live with it and tweak it. Don’t make a xenophobic meal out of it.
The bottom line is that the tourism boom has been a net positive. It’s stimulating the economy, enriching both guest and host, made people more flexible about dealing with diversity, and made Japan more accessible and less inscrutable.
Most importantly, from my point of view, it’s torn down more “Japanese Only” signs than I ever could have.
The potential is there for this all to go sour. But this is what happens when you see foreigners as an economic entity but not a domestic political force. Time for that to stop.
And it’s especially time for NJ Residents not to shoot themselves in the foot by agreeing with discrimination against tourists. Because in many policymakers’ view, all foreigners are tourists. Change course. Because with the direction things are going, they won’t be part of the “Kama’aina” unless they push for it.
ENDS
======================
Do you like what you read on Debito.org? Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? Please consider donating a little something. More details here. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.
8 comments on “My Shingetsu News Agency Visible Minorities column 67: “Int’l tourism has been good for Japan”, where I argue that short-sighted criticisms about Japan being “overtouristed” may spoil things, so don’t let the debate backfire into racialized policymaking”
Very interesting and thought provoking column, as per usual. I‘m glad that Japan changed in a way that „Japanese only“ signs are becoming increasingly rare, but the question is at what cost? Like we discussed here already, replacing them with dual pricing may be even worse since it actually financially rewards racist behavior. I agree with the notion that a lot of long term immigrants seem to jump on the bandwagon of hating on foreign tourists. This ties in with your column from a few years ago which stated that a lot of immigrants seem to look down on newcomers and pull the ladder up, rather than helping them. „The tourists/newcomers are spoiling my perfect Japan“ line has always been prevelant for some reason, and it‘s weird to me how so many people can‘t see their own hypocrisy, or realize how obnoxious they sound.
„ And it’s especially time for NJ Residents not to shoot themselves in the foot by agreeing with discrimination against tourists. Because in many policymakers’ view, all foreigners are tourists.“
This. Seems like a lot of people forgot what happened during the first 6 months of covid. I haven‘t forgotten. Permanent residents are just glorified tourists to the GOJ. They see the world as a „us Japanese“ vs the „gaijin“ duality. You should never support discrimination because it‘s just categorically wrong, but when it comes to Japan people are literally shooting themselves in the foot (well not „literally“, but you get my point).
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Also before this potentially comes up, no, I‘m not comparing the discrimination of foreigners in Japan to the holocaust, I just want to illustrate how easy it is to fall into the „not my problem“ trap. People rarely think about these things if they‘re not directly affected, but history sooner or later catches up to you. Discrimination is wrong, period. You‘re going to open a can of worms if you‘re going into this thing with the mindset of „as long as it‘s tourists, it‘s ok to racially profile them and charge them 4 times more“.
A lot of people are short sighted and also seem to have problems with collective memory (the covid thing I previously mentioned).
Anyways, I‘m sick of the tourist bashing, both by the public and media. As always, this column and website are a single light in the dark when it comes to online discourse about Japan.
—- Thanks for saying so!
Unfortunately, Japanese have a much harsher view of refugees than citizens in other countries and have done the least individually to help people who have fled their homelands (Japanese language reference here), so hopefully flexibility about dealing with diversity will at some point extend to this interest group as well!
The interviews literally read like propaganda during the WW 2 era!
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/06/3966f26205f0-feature-awakened-conservatives-in-japan-targeting-foreigners.html
And of course she‘s afraid of foreigns, even though they never did anything bad to her, or anyone in the community. Like I said multiple times, in Japan it‘s enough to simply exist as a visible minority in order to be discriminated against. The apologists never believe me, oh the irony!
Double irony that she has to resort to the good old „I have nothing against „good“ foreigners“.
Like Baud said, Japan doesn‘t deserve „good“ foreigners. Definitely not with a mindset like that.
I realize these are just the opinions of some random 2 „conservative“ women, but in my experience this is how the majority of the population thinks, they‘re usually just too afraid to say it out loud, hence the „they didn‘t want to give their real name“ part.
Here’s my two-yen: Gaijin numbers keep going up while wajin numbers keep going down, so the roaches (read: ultranationalists), sensing an opportunity to capitalize on FUD, are crawling out into the light in order to take their message to the people.
The good news is that what we’re seeing is a case of roach cannibalism (i.e., CPJ, Sanseito, et. al. winning over converts at the expense of the LDP):
And there’s more good news: roach growth is severely constrained by Japan’s electoral system:
But the bad news is how the roaches are going about their cannibalization business:
Here’s my advice for “awakened conservatives” who are drawn in by the siren song of the roaches: go back to sleep!
While I am on the subject of roaches, take a deeper dive into their world here: FEATURE: Younger Japanese drawn to anti-immigrant populist Sanseito
And as it turns out, here’s another roach-related article worth reading:
Voters afraid of ‘scary foreigners’ propel Sanseito before election / 参政党「日本人ファースト」への熱気 街で聞いた支持する理由と不安 (Japanese language paywall version)
JK, this woman’s thought process is bizarre:
A 66-year-old office worker, who happened to pass by the rally, gave a big nod of approval to Kamiya’s speech.
She explained that she experienced an immigrant-related problem when she was a foreigner living in Germany about 30 years ago.
“My family was attacked by a brute. They managed to escape, but immigrants are scary,” she said.
She said she didn’t want the number of foreigners in Japan to increase.
Japanese original:
通りかかった会社員の女性（66）は選挙カーを見上げ、神谷氏の演説に大きくうなずいた。
支持するのは、30年ほど前に住んでいたドイツで移民に関する問題に触れた経験から。「家族が暴漢に襲われた。逃げて大丈夫だったけど移民は怖い」と語り、日本で外国人がこれ以上増えるのは嫌だという。
So, as an immigrant herself in Germany 30 years ago, her family was attacked by either (she does not make it clear) an anti-immigration German, or a fellow immigrant in Germany. And her conclusion as a victim of prejudiced violence in Germany is to adopt this prejudice herself in Japan?
—- Saw that a lot in my research of “Japanese Only” businesses. Excluding manager sometimes cited an overseas incident of themselves being discriminated against. So naturally they felt justified to exclude when they were in a position to. A form of Karmic rebalance in their own heads, in precisely the wrong direction.
Racism rots brains.
In other news, becoming a refugee will become even harder , because an acceptance rate of 0,2% wasn‘t low enough I guess.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250702/p2a/00m/0op/006000c
And all of this just because the public feels „uneasy“ around foreigners, as stated by the justice minister.