“Kitanai naaaa, omae,” a Japanese salaryman scowled at me, glaring with the lifeless eyes of a dead fish. I had just left the convenience store outside Asakusa Station and was parting ways with a family member staying at one of my short-term rental clients’ properties. Shocked, I turned to see what cultural faux pas I had unknowingly committed. While initially apologetic, I quickly realized this combative fellow was simply looking to pick a fight, spewing some horrific racial slurs in the process.
To this day, I’m not sure what set him off that evening. Was it the fact that I had an adult beverage in my hand for the long trip home, instead of holing up in one of Asakusa’s terrible tourist traps and spending money there? Was he just frustrated and completely fed up with the incessant flow of poorly mannered, first-time visitors to Japan who flood Asakusa? I’ll never know. Still, the incident really stuck with me, as I am about as Japanese in my mannerisms as any foreigner can get.
Honestly, I debated writing the following rant for some time since we’re about to wade into semi-political waters (an area I typically avoid like the plague). But as I watched that deranged salaryman sulk back to his tiny apartment above the convenience store, I couldn’t help but understand, at least a little, where he was coming from. Day in and day out, this poor soul likely deals with foreign tourists behaving like absolute animals as they prance about, treating Asakusa as if it’s some sort of cultural Disneyland made just for them.
Adding to our salaryman’s foreigner fatigue is the fact that, while he slaves away at a job that barely pays him enough to afford a tiny place above a convenience store, the tourists in his neighborhood are throwing cash around like it’s Monopoly money thanks to the weak yen. Should we really be surprised that this sad soul has had enough of people from other countries? Surely the endless examples of foreigners trashing Asakusa would be enough to sour even the most welcoming of individuals, fast-tracking them toward racism and xenophobia.
Not Really a New Problem
In an attempt to keep this piece evergreen and provide long-term value, I’m not going to comment on the recent rise of the right-wing nationalist party, the Sanseito. My goal here isn’t to talk about politics but to make a point about the future trajectory of public sentiment. While it’s true that we are entering an age of populism, both in Japan and globally, these issues have been brewing for quite some time. As the number of non-Japanese in the country has skyrocketed since the pandemic, so too has the locals’ exhaustion with the poor behavior of many foreigners.
Many are quick to call Japan a xenophobic culture, and there is some truth to that (though this “fear of the other” often applies to fellow Japanese as well). At the same time, Japan is largely a homogeneous society. There’s a certain way things are done here, and failure to comply with those rules disrupts the surface-level harmony society is built on. That’s why everything runs so smoothly here. As any tourist who has visited before can attest, Japanese people are generally lenient about the occasional oopsie, but they’re starting to tire of the sheer volume of them.
In addition to the rising number of overseas visitors, Japan is also seeing a record-high number of foreign residents, many coming from developing countries. This trend is fueled by a pressing need for labor, as the median age is now nearing 50. The nation has turned to workers from poorer places in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and elsewhere to staff its factories, convenience stores, and other jobs younger Japanese are unwilling to take. This demand for a workforce has pushed the percentage of residents from different cultures to upwards of 3% of the population.
All of this has created a country that is simultaneously both besieged by overtourism and home to a record number of non-Japanese residents, many of whom do a poor job of assimilating. While I’m certainly not arguing for a return to the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of sakoku, this is the first time Japanese society as a whole has had to tolerate this much “otherness,” and the patience of locals is quickly wearing thin. Add the rising cost of living and the weakness of the yen, and you have a recipe for resentment.
To be completely honest with you, Japan has always had a precarious relationship with its foreign guests and residents. Tolerated but not widely welcomed with open arms, the public has put up with other nationalities like one might a temporary visitor, but there has always been an undercurrent that Japan is for the Japanese. What we’re seeing now in terms of the rise in anti-foreigner sentiment is simply those long-standing feelings coming to the surface as patience wears thin. “Racism” or not, it is the cost of so many non-Japanese coming here.
Overtourism is the Catalyst
Though much of the blame from politicians is placed on foreign residents, I think the real stressor is overtourism. While I’ll admit there are pockets of the country dealing with an increase in crime linked to immigrants, such as Kawaguchi where 49% of residents now report feeling unsafe due to the significant foreign community, the majority of Japan only encounters these issues through media coverage that fuels public fears. For most Japanese, their only real interaction with foreign residents is with convenience store clerks or others working in undesirable jobs that locals won’t take.
When you take into account that even minor infractions involving non-Japanese residents are more likely to be widely reported by the media, it’s easy to see why there’s a growing perception that overall crime rates have risen because of immigration. This perception raises the baseline levels of foreigner fatigue among an already “other”-averse population. While in the past many might have found foreigners merely annoying but tolerable, this is quickly turning into outright xenophobia, as seen in the growing hostility toward non-Japanese.
On top of all this is Japan’s ongoing overtourism problem. Many parts of the country, such as Asakusa where the salaryman I opened this article with lives, are now so inundated with the worst kind of tourist that they’re hardly recognizable. In years past, Japan attracted visitors who came for the culture. Nowadays, the weak yen has made it a mainstream destination, drawing in the worst of the worst who couldn’t care less about Japan’s rules and high-trust society. As you might imagine, the Japanese public isn’t really all too happy about it.
This isn’t just happening in the big cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. More and more, overseas travelers are venturing into the prefectures, to places where few foreigners have ever traveled. While I’m a fan of more people getting off the beaten path, it also means that residents of places like Japan’s island of Shikoku now have to deal with far more people from abroad than they might want to. I’ve even heard reports of some of the 88 temples along Shikoku’s famed Ohenro pilgrimage being rather icy toward non-Japanese visitors.
Though things might change in the future due to public sentiment and political upheavals, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) is still tasked by the government with hitting an annual target of 60 million tourists by 2030. As of this writing, we’re only at half that number, and already the system is starting to break under the strain. Rather than chasing a sustainable number of higher-caliber, higher-spending tourists, Japan has instead set its sights on raw headcount as a KPI. Shocking no one, overtourism is the result and the public is increasingly irate.
In years gone by, areas like Shibuya were havens of Japanese youth culture. These days, the streets of this former mecca of fashion, fun, and nightlife have become literal dumps thanks to the overtourism tax. Plagued by street-interview content creators and drunk foreigners thrilled to finally be able to drink outdoors, the essence that once made Shibuya what it was is all but gone. Similarly, the soul of Akihabara, the world’s capital for anime and manga, is also missing as the people who built that culture flee from the deluge of foreign weebs seeking their nerdy fix.
Making matters worse, painfully little has been done to bolster the infrastructure needed to handle this massive influx of visitors. For example, fed up with all the litter, Kyoto has even removed trash bins because clueless foreigners can’t figure out simple things, like the fact that their Starbucks cup doesn’t belong in the receptacle for cans next to a vending machine. Naturally, this leads those not from rule-abiding societies like Japan to dump their trash wherever they please, further fueling local fatigue of foreigners.
Japan’s Ever-Increasing ‘Other’”
When you combine widespread media coverage of incidents like those in Kawaguchi with overtourism, the cost of so many people from other parts of the world coming here feels very real to many Japanese. As living costs keep rising while wages stagnate, many are looking for a scapegoat. That’s why populist rhetoric like “Japanese First” is gaining traction. And while blaming foreigners won’t solve Japan’s economic or political woes, the public is, quite frankly, out of proverbial fucks to give when it comes to non-Japanese causing problems.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a strong Japan and want to see the nation prosper. Though I am not ethnically Japanese, I am about as pro-Japan as they come and harbor more nationalist sentiment than most. Still, I recognize that blaming people from other countries isn’t going to solve anything. Japan desperately needs the revenue tourism brings. Likewise, convenience stores, factories, and other essential services do need to be staffed, and if young Japanese won’t do these jobs, then someone has to step up to keep the system running.
What the country needs to figure out now is how it can remain the Japan we know while also welcoming so much “otherness,” whether through tourism or immigration. Better efforts must be made to combat the effects of overtourism so Japan attracts better-behaved visitors who spend more money over the course of their visit. Additionally, the country also needs to find ways to help the small percentage of foreigners who do immigrate assimilate more effectively, while throwing the book at those who dare disrupt this haven of trust and peace.
At the end of the day, this rising anti-foreigner sentiment isn’t the disease — it’s a actually symptom. Sure, there are legitimate issues when people come into a high-trust society like Japan and can’t be bothered to follow the rules or respect the peace. However, the reason locals are so fed up has far less to do with foreigners themselves and far more to do with economics. The weak yen is attracting low-caliber travelers who treat Japan like a budget cultural playground, while an aging population forces the country to import labor just to keep factory floors and convenience stores staffed.
When you combine these two factors, the result is a Japan with more foreigners than at any other point in its modern history. Much like a burning fever is an unpleasant symptom of the body fighting an infection, this influx of people from overseas is symptomatic of something deeply awry in Japan’s social infrastructure. Were times better, society wouldn’t need to swallow the bitter pill of mass immigration or chase an unrealistic target of 60 million annual tourists when the country can barely handle half that number without cracking at the seams.
Unfortunately, times are not better, and unsurprisingly, people are looking for someone or something to sacrifice on the proverbial altar. But just as a fever is not the disease itself but the body’s way of trying to fight it, the overwhelming number of foreigners in Japan is not the real problem. It’s a side effect of a comically weak yen, stagnant wages amid a rising cost of living, and an overwhelming sense of malaise about the future. And as history shows us, upset people will almost always turn to out-groups as scapegoats in populist moments like these rather than address root causes.
We’re ALL Ambassadors from Abroad
At the end of the day, I’m just a foreign-born digital marketer and media buyer who moonlights as a travel content creator. I have no desire to play armchair politician on the internet, nor do I have the slightest clue as to what would actually solve the problems Japan is facing right now. What I can say is that there is, indeed, an increasingly steep cost to coming here, and Japan is still figuring out how to handle it. The high-trust society and safety that make this country so great are being tested as more and more people, not cut from the same cultural cloth, cross Japan’s borders.
Though I’ll refrain from weighing in on policy reform, what I can say is that Japanese people are no longer as tolerant of foreigners as they once were. More and more, you can overhear negative comments like the one I cited at the start of this article if you understand Japanese. As much as Japan remains a paradise for travelers, locals have very little patience left for mass tourism. While I’d like to believe Japan will always welcome the right kind of traveler, it’s clear that society is bearing the burden of overtourism, and people aren’t happy about it.
On that note, since this is a Japan travel blog first and foremost, I want to end by reminding you that every one of you is an ambassador for the non-Japanese collective when you come here. While none of us can stop the Jonny Somalis and other nuisance streamers of the world from stoking the fires of xenophobia, we can all be more mindful of the fact that Japanese people are tired of dealing with our nonsense. So do your part. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the unseen societal rules of Japan before coming.
Personally, I try to embody the fact that no, not all foreigners are the kind of trash you see defiling the streets of Kyoto with their garbage. I may not have any influence in the political sphere, but I can at least play a small part in addressing the underlying economic issues by helping bring more tourism revenue to the countryside and through the advertising work I do for Japanese SMEs, like Ayu-no-Sato in Kumamoto Prefecture. Hopefully, if we all do what we can, we can lighten the cost of our coming to Japan.
At the end of the day, if we want Japan to remain the wonderful place to visit that it is, we’ve got to stop handing ammunition to the people who’d rather slam the gates shut for good. Lest you think this is an impossibility, look no further than the shrine on Tsushima that outright banned all tourists — that’s where we’re heading if people keep treating this country like a cultural Disneyland. The locals have had it up to here, and honestly, I don’t blame them for their frustration.
So if you’re coming to Japan, act like you actually give a damn about the rules, because the welcome mat is getting rolled up fast. The underlying economic and immigration concerns aren’t your fault, but at the very least, you can avoid placing any further strain on the country’s already overstressed hospitality. There are already enough people messing it up for everyone. We don’t need to throw any more fuel on the fire of xenophobia.
Until next time travelers…
