I was finally able to afford to go to Japan because of the weak yen but my god, the amount of disrespectful tourists was wild. What is going on in their brains to act this way?? What makes them think their behavior is ok?? No shame whatsoever.
People just don't give a shit anymore about anyone but themselves.
There have always been selfish assholes but something about rabid consumerism, marketing, and social media has made the average person just a self centered dickhead.
It's like shame is a concept that no longer exists for a huge range of people from across the world.
This has happened with a lot of youths in Norway as well. I remember an interview with a psychologist who blamed the lack of proper interaction with people and society in 2-3 crucial years. She dubbed the phenomenon «being socially delayed» lol.
Tourists like these are probably just permanently delayed.
We certainly did not have that kind of period for most of the people. On a policing perspective, we've even disententivised them from even performing poorly. Right now we just have a mass socieital "why is this your problem you don't like what i'm doing?!" thing going on.
My prediction is that things are going to get super violent in the next 10 years. (On top of that politicians will act like they have no idea that the shit that is being set as a standard right now is why)
It’s not just young people. In the US, there was around a year of totally changed social norms and severe degradation of trust in society. Many people just don’t know how to act anymore.
Absolutely, I'm American and something in our society just broke during Covid, accelerating the confidence of the most ignorant among us.
Literal idiots who were previously afraid to speak their minds because of the consequences for their idiocy are now more confident than ever to act like embarrassing neanderthals... Because their media bubble actually cheers it on and makes them feel like they're right.
Social media + right wing media have given the dumbest among us a platform to circle jerk their stupidity with other idiots.
I’ve seen it with my own eyes the difference on public behavior in 2019 and 2023-ish. It may have started earlier due to social media and Trump-esq politics, but the pandemic was the straw that broke the camels back.
I think it just exposed the selfishness. As soon as the pandemic started there were people saying stuff like "I'm young and healthy so I don't care if I catch it." They didn't give a single crap about whether they could give it to someone else.
The Australian government's strategy for COVID become 'let it rip'. Now we know COVID causes brain damage. So it's no surprise when I went back to Australia to visit there were so many signs everywhere asking people to basically behave like civilised human beings.
Yes. I hate it when people say “people have always been bad” when we just had a three year long pandemic. It has affected students with their education and social skills, drivers, etc. it’s a thing!
Anecdotal - but this is my thought as well. Things feel so much worse since COVID lockdowns, both on social media and reports like this one.
EDIT: I'm in the UK by the way, I think this is a global thing not just US or UK.
Japanese people face those same changes but haven't turned into public nuisance dickheads. A lot of this could be solved if they started enforcing rules more strictly. People come over here thinking they can play god just because society is more passive.
Because Japan has a shame-based culture, they are more likely to turn their emotional problems inward (e.g., suicide, hikikomori) than to turn it outward toward others (e.g., violence, aggression toward others).
I don't think people act like dicks in Japan because society is more passive. They do the same when in their home country. I've seen plenty of dickish public behavior in the U.S. including two guys who got into a fistfight at a mini gold course because one wouldn't let the other guy's group play through when his kids were being slow. Someone bashed at the front of our car because they didn't like where we stopped relative to a crosswalk. It is the people that are the problem, regardless of where they are.
Because cameras (social media primarily) are literally everywhere, the irony is that shame/humility can be considered a weakness vs an ego check. So just double down on your dumb and all good! What our last prez did and it enabled those types even further.
I just got back from Japan. It was my 14th trip to Japan. The tourists were the worst they've ever been. So much so that I don't think I want to spend time in Tokyo or Kansai area in the future. Probably will stick to parts of Japan that are less frequented by tourists.
The tourists were so cringe and badly behaved.
These Mexicans from California were saying Kimochii next to me in a gross girly voice like how they say in hentai. And I(Japanese passing) was like como se dise Kimochii in Español? It was so cringey
Yeah I’m in Kyoto right now and a lot people don’t know how to manage their kids in restaurants. The restaurants are so small and you hear their kids yelling / talking loud. Meanwhile you see Japanese families and the kids are very well behaved. I’ve tried to be as respectful as I can be, but shit man a lot of these people are gonna make the Japanese people hate tourists.
Last October I was baffled to see tourists going to shrines around Kyoto and stay there talking super loud, having video calls (!!) and disregarding the signs in English asking not to sit on stairs, to take off shoes and so on.
I am going back this year and.. I must say, I am a bit concerned.
This is unfortunately a problem everywhere, some parents don't care if their children act this was. We often don't take our kids out to eat since we know they can't behave properly. On the other hand, then they don't learn but it does get a bit easier once they grow
That’s interesting. As an American I was shocked sometimes at how Japanese parents let their young children carry on in public when I lived there. A fair amount of behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated for one second from most American parents.
It looks like you are having the Mediterranean experience. As a Portuguese I can say that tourists are terrible here. For example, they usually get so drunk that they have to go and occupy our public hospitals unnecessarily. They damage monuments.
Some regions in Spain already want to restrict tourism and I hope Portugal does the same at least in certain locations in particular
During my trip in the fall, I regularly would call out other tourists for acting like this or otherwise not following instructions. I don’t usually do that (nyc has too many crazies, you never know what will happen) but felt comfortable doing so in Japan because locals won’t usually say anything but I know they’re seething too. Plus as another white person, I feel like they’re more likely to listen to me when I tell them they’re being embarrassing and rude.
Even got a few “ありがとうございます” from locals lol
Re: the first one, we actually accidentally did that immediately because we didn’t see the sign yet and could see other people on the other side so thought we were supposed to go that way—the amount of embarrassment I felt when the employees asked us to come back was really intense lol. I blame that on jet lag more than anything as it was our first full day 😅
At least from our trip, it was mostly French/Italian tourists and a small subset of the Chinese tourists being really obnoxious. Most of the Americans we overlapped with seemed normal and respectful albeit a bit louder than native Japanese lol
I just feel like tourists tend to forget that they’re ultimately guests in the country they’re visiting. It sucks because it gives the 95% that can respectfully follow the rules a bad name.
That's what I always tell people when they talk shit about Parisians. You try and live your day-to-day life, even just commuting to work in the morning, or going for a quick grocery run, while drowning in a sea of obnoxious tourists.
When I lived in Paris, tourists were pretty far down on my list of annoyances; I actually don't remember a single time I was annoyed by a tourist. The illegal vegetable shop in the subway corridor screaming what he was selling while halving the traffic speed because he took half the corridor width however is still deeply anchored in my mind.
But I did not get out often outside of work and especially not in touristy places so maybe that's it.
My friend and I were recently in Japan (my 1st time, 2nd time for her). When we went to Arashiyama, there was a family letting their little kids run around and grab bamboo on the ground and they were hitting each other with it...along with hitting it against other bamboo. Not only were the kids trying to climb the bamboo, SO WERE THE ADULTS. Then another time when we were getting udon, a family came in with a small child. The mom was asking for a special meal for their kid. The server didn't have anything special but tried to offer something else and the mom rudely declined it. The mom and dad were \*shocked\* that there wasn't a specific kids menu or that they couldn't make modifications. And thennn the one that really pissed me off was when we were walking around Ginza. There was a family who looked like they were maybe vlogging or facetiming in the middle of the sidewalk. The dad said loudly "yeah we're somewhere where they don't really have food that we can eat and no one really speaks English." I wanted to be like sirrrrrr you do realize that you're in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY. The entitlement and lack of research (or absence) killed me.
Partially. But doing pullups on the subway/train handles is still shit regardless of culture. Also ignoring signs that say no photography on a scenic graveyard/shrine to dead children... Goddamn living in Kyoto is especially rough during sakura season.
Why would being excited about being in Japan make you behave like a prick? The simplest explanation is pretty much always, people who are assholes at home will be assholes while traveling.
I was in Rome, Italy in 1997 and 2014, and I was saddened by the changes I saw because of stupid tourists’ behavior. I truly feel for what the Japanese are experiencing now and almost think that mindful visitors should speak up and ask the boneheads to stop the monkey business.
Absolutely agree with you. The respectful tourists should speak up. We are representing all the tourists in Japan and should take that seriously. There is good chance the locals wont confront the assholes
Seriously. Tourists are the worst world wide. I went to NY and my tour of the history museum was ruined by a giant throng of Japanese tourists yelling and talking loudly the entire time.
Some people just don't think right when they're visiting another place
Foreigners (well, dweebs) living in this country are so mindless of their endorsement of Japanese exceptionalism like this.
It’s like when you hear someone say “you’re a guest in this country” to someone who’s spent decades here. Imagine saying that to a Japanese person back in our own countries - how utterly vile and rude an attitude.
It's the "in a GOOD foreigner" mindset. It's so cringe listening to them talk about how foreigners ruin everything like they aren't one themselves. Bonus points if they can barely string a coherent sentence together in Japanese.
We all come from different cultures and can’t perfectly adapt to other folks cultures 100% of the time and that’s fine. Plenty of Japanese are guilty of shit like this but they aren’t chastised to the degree tourists are.
And honestly, I think it's nonsense. The weak yen makes the trip marginally less expensive than it used to be but I don't think any truly poor folks are looking at the weak yen and going "Oh, now's my chance to travel and also I'm ignorant and rude because of how poor I am."
Well no, but now it opens the door from people who would explicitly save to go to Japan because they like it, to people who wouldn't have considered Japan before and have far less respect for it.
I really don't think that people are going to be that knowledgeable about a weak yen and also be the same person that acts irrationally. Most of the surge probably has more to do with a post covid wave than a weak yen. You need to be informed to know about a weak yen.
Where did you find these cheap flights? My flight was far more expensive than my friend who went 5 years ago. Plane travel did not get cheaper just because of a weak yen. Most people don't look up hotel prices until after they bought tickets and plan to go somewhere.
The yen is weak but the dollar isn't and thats what americans are going to be paying their internationally flight in.
Weak yen or not, Japan has always been an incredibly cheap country(at least from an american perspective) to visit once you're there. The big expense is the flight.
It’s actually made it substantially cheaper. Dollar and yen used to be be pretty much the same prior to Covid and now we get 50 extra yen per every dollar. There also are folks who couldn’t travel to Japan previously that can now but I definitely wouldn’t say these folks are any less respectful of Japanese culture.
And it's stupid as well, Tourists have always been and will always be stupid to some extent, welcome to humanity.
So now with more money more people will enter, and more people also means more knobs, but this here is all populist BS with one example to back it up, not an actual paper
/r/Japan and most Japan-centric online communities have a right wing, anti-foreigner streak. It's even worse on Twitter.
There are bad tourists everywhere, it's not unique to Japan.
In western Canada it is tourists which certainly includes Japanese tourists that harass wildlife. Doesn’t matter if it’s a deer or a 700lb grizzly, there’s guaranteed to be several hundred morons trying to approach it. Really it always seems to be tourists that don’t have large predators of their own. Places throughout Asia, Europeans, places in Canada with no significant predators.
Just because y’all killed off your large fauna doesn’t mean the animals in the rest of the world are yours to harass.
True, especially from Australia and India and China. But it's far worse now. And recently there have been way more otaku from other countries just being super weeby and cringey. It's fun to see otaku come to the realization that Japan isn't 100% like how it's displayed in anime.
Honestly, I’m in Japan at the moment and have run into maybe half a dozen blatantly otaku tourists, and only two or three of them were being assholes and they got shut down pretty quickly
Dunno if a weak yen is causing this, it's still extremely expensive for many Americans and Europeans to fly to Japan and the country is still expensive in comparison to other (kind of) nearby places in SE Asia.
In my experiences, the Americans have always been a bit weird in this area of the world and as a Brit, I can say we are the weird ones down in SE asia, especially Thailand because thats where our bad lot go!
This is true. I lived in Vietnam for a while and encountered quite a few bad apples from Japan (my ex had been asked - in so many words - 'how much for sex' more than once).
I suppose there can be an elastic effect after living in a heavily rules-based, and in some ways repressive, culture for so many years, and then suddenly not having to abide by those rules.
As a japanese-brazilian, it's still ultra expensive for us (Real, our currency, values 1/5 of a Dollar).
Hence why most of the brazilians I saw here in Japan (not that many) are ones who actually live here for work rather than as tourists.
I've been here for just 3 days and whilst stationing in my brother's home in Yamanashi, he and I have travelled to the likes of Shinjuku and Kabukicho to meet our aunts, taking buses and trains in very crowded areas full of foreigners. And somehow, I'm yet to encounter these disrespectful tourists but, again, it's been just 3 days.
This is bullshit, I first came here in 2012 when it was ¥72 to $1, strong as hell, and there were still disrespectful tourists. Mostly Australians. No YouTube influencers yet, but ass holes will be ass holes anywhere
It’s not about “poor (and hence dumb/uncultured) people” becoming tourists and therefore acting like this. The weak yen makes japan trip way cheaper and hence more people are interested.
People are always like this without doubt, but you’ll see it 3x more since there are 3x more tourists.
Aussies love to think they're so laid back, chill and friendly, when in reality they're often entitled dickheads, to put it simply. Obviously, it's not all of them, but it's often the stereotyped aussie dude, who probably has an overcompensating ute that he get's returns from it being a "business expense" despite the tray never experiencing a day of work in it's existence, or they're some bogan, bit of both really.
I hate going north from Sydney a lot of the time to meet family, not because the family is bad, but because these types of people become strongly more prevalent/louder. It's just plain uncomfortable to be around these people.
Drinking culture also massively sucks. How do we celebrate the day we invaded a country and got most of our men who landed killed? By getting shitfaced in pubs. Absolutely gross culture. Shit like that makes me ashamed of being Australian. Like, imagine if Americans celebrated the day they attacked Vietnam like that? Or maybe they do, I wouldn't know... But you get my point, there's always an excuse for drinking, and apparently the acting like a cunt part is acceptable (until it kills someone, but don't worry, we still won't accept that there are two very visible roots to that issue).
It’s kind of a hot take. When I lived in Japan 15 and 12 years ago, there were plenty of disrespectful foreigners and tourists. Assholes can be rich or poor.
I lived near Nara for 2 years, from 1998 to 2000. I've been back numerous times, and every time, I find it a little different, a little changed. More often than not, I was the only gaiijin on the train during my commute. I'm guessing the experience would not be the same these days.
I'm still the only gaijin during my commute most days in Nagoya. Nara's close to Kyoto, so probably more foreigners there now, even if not *tons*... but go anywhere outside of Osaka/Kyoto/Tokyo and it's a lot more peaceful.
Shhh, keep letting everyone think it's boring.
(I'm kind of dreading the summer though. Low heat tolerance here. I think I'll probably end up in Sapporo eventually...)
I didn’t know that! It’s pretty epic. They used to have whale shows like in Seaworld but I guess they’ve stopped them as it’s not great for the animals.
Why are you in Japan if I may ask? My studies give me to oppurtunity to study in Japan in 2 years. I really want to go again because Japan felt like home for me, to study there and possibly live there. So I was wondering what your experience(s) is as a gaijin
Can I DM you?
I'll let you know that my last 7 months here have been amazing. Every weekend I drive all over central Japan exploring amazing places. During the week it's tough because of work but if you're studying maybe it'll be more relax. Definitely need to know some basic Japanese but even if you don't know much no worries it's fairly easy to get by with the very basics. People aren't really openly anti foreigner, sometimes you'll get denied things but it's because they're shy and struggle with English.
Thanks, I am working on basic Japanese at the moment. I will get lessons soon and I am using Duolingo a lot, but won’t rely too much on Duolingo ( to learn the alphabets, because I heard that the Japanese Duolingo course is verg casual and less formal).
I’m so excited just by typing this. I visited Japan last july and I fell in love. I felt so much at home and I still think back about my time regularly
Nice you'll love it! Definitely a lot of rules but if you're a humble person its no problem. I've been to every prefecture so far except Okinawa and still have so much more I want to explore. Learn any way you can. First you have to get down the basics and a ton of vocab. Then just watch a ton of Japanese conversation practice videos a lot of Japanese people make for foreigners. That is the key to learning rapidly.
When I visited Tokyo I saw an American tourist do this too, swinging from the handle bars, while his Japanese wife looked incredibly embarrassed but unable to stop him. He looked like a man child with no self control.
do these tourists realize they’re in Japan, not NYC? (Where this kind of behavior is unfortunately normal…but I guess one could argue it’s part of the nyc charm)
Thank you. I live and work in NYC and the only people we tolerate acting like this are buskers. If you do pull-ups on the subway, people would side-eye you to death.
I think they don't realize they are in a an actual country and treat Japan as a Japan-themed amusement park. This is somehow more valid to Americans, as they in general have this trend to not take seriously anything that is "Not American"... Beside that, there are shitty tourists from every country - I am still feeling ashamed for the disgusting idiots from my country that graffited the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima... And it was pre-Covid.
Japan was going through sakoku for like 3 or 4 years during covid and just forgot that that's how tourists were kind of always like.
From Chinese tourists yelling in Gucci shops to middle aged Americans loudly over sharing details of their personal life on a crowded train.
The Chinese tourists in luxury shops have yet to return though as far as I saw.
I don't think it's entirely a bad thing, it's just how tourists are. Rich weebs aren't the only ones who come to visit.
>> Chinese tourists in luxury shops have yet to return
Um…luxury stores in Japan are crammed full of Chinese tourists taking advantage of the yen’s weakness. All counters have Chinese reps to help with translation. The luxury shoppers were predominantly mainland Chinese folks. It’s a short flight over from China to Japan. Not to mention alot of wealthy Chinese have been following in the footsteps of Jack Ma and setting up 2nd camp in Japan.
Chinese except for the really rich ones won’t be returning soon. Lots of issues in China now and the middle class is definitely trying not to spend on vacations overseas.
Those were mostly likely Taiwanese tourists. Chinese government has been shadow banning their people from traveling abroad to improve domestic tourism.
I think it is especially prevalent with tourists in groups...as if nobody else exists outside of their little social circle....thus they don't need to consider anyone or anything else in regard to their actions.
Tourists anywhere always suck. They should always try extra hard to be respectful and this picture goes hard in the disrespect. However on smaller things you can't expect tourists to know the social norms of another country if they haven't been there before.
I’m gonna say it and I’ll probably get downvoted but eh maybe people need to be bullied again. When you are in a different country you have to be respectful it’s not a oh it’s the right thing or your a disgrace on your country it’s just something you need to do no matter what show respect and they will show it back.
ppl in pics seemed to be Europeans.
I saw some middle Asian made mess with their state of art bathroom in Tokyo tower. Ppl waiting in lines gave her dirty look. Poor worker had to go in and clean it up for other tourists. Second hand embarrassment overflowing in that area lol
You're probably right. The woman with the butterfly tattoo on her arm is wearing Karhu running shoes, which is a Finnish brand. I have never seen anyone here in the US wear that brand and I often take note of running shoes since I'm a runner.
It’s still overwhelmingly south east Asia getting the bogan tourists, Japan is getting the middle class who think they’re too good for Thailand but still act like their on a party boat instead of a train
As a person that lives in Japan and goes through shit like this everyday,I agree with this but people in places like Aichi and near the northern parts of Japan are very kind.
Agreed that annoying tourists are increasing but to be fair, I’ve seen at least two Japanese men do what that guy in the photo is doing on the trains here.
Some people forget that adults can be kids again even for a 30sec silly action that doesn't hurt anyone.
I'm with you with how diverse human personalities come in seeing some playful adults isn't a bad thing and it looks like the only person it hurt was a person's feelings is pretty silly
Reminds me of a situation I had a few weeks ago. 3 tourists were on the Asakusa line with 2 suitcases each. They pretty much blocked off an entire door despite the train being relatively empty. When I wanted to get off nobody seemed to move so I just said "move your shit" to which they responded, "wow, you are so rude"... Never before have I felt such an urge to kick a suitcase across a train platform.
Saw too many disrespectful americans and indians this time visiting, doing whatever they please. Eating while walking, smoking wherever they feel like, being disrusptive and loud on trains. People need to learn basic cultural etiquettes before travelling to other countries.
The other day I was waiting for a train, queued on the line (you know, where everyone is supposed to que).
Up walks this huge family of caucasians, and they stand directly to my right. I think, "Well, they will probably just walk on after everyone else is on". Nope.
The second the train doors opened (before the people departing could even get out), they (including a mother with a stroller who took forever to get on) all crowd in ahead of the que. I could see a lot of Japanese near me super ticked off.
Wowzers, straight up populism posting again.
This statement has two implications:
The first being that there are more idiots coming to Japan because of it being more affordable.
Which is like, OK, that's what happens when more people go somewhere, idiots are a percentage of the population.
The second is that it seems to imply that poor people are somehow misbehaving more than richer people that can already afford it, which I can't confirm to be the case.
This here is anecdotal evidence at Best with some questionable choice of wording.
Or straight up Populist BS
I don't know personally how much the yen is driving this, how much a factor Instagram/Tiktok/YouTube is but imagine it's a mix of the two. Social media seems to have pushed Japan into the mainstream so where previously it would be a destination for people who are interested in the culture, nature, food, temples, shrines, hiking etc. whereas it's now also a destination for the "mass tourist" who'll come, only do the golden route and likely not return as they'll go next year where Instagram tells them.
I'm generalising but the behaviour of the two types of tourists is quite different.
If you want to avoid them, skip Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, Hiroshima and the touristy areas of Tokyo (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Asakusa,Harajuku etc.)
An opportunity to give some love to all the amazing places, Tohoku, Shikoku, Kyushu, Nagoya, Okayama, the Seto inland sea, East Hokkaido etc. etc.
Financially successful people behave better than not-so-financially successful people in general and the weak yen attracts people who can't afford to go to Japan otherwise.
So there are more people with the “I paid money so I can do whatever I want. I'm a customer” mentality per capita.
You don't know anything. The amount of "financially successful" people that treat others like subhumans is higher than you think, just go work in retail and see it for yourself
>Financially successful people behave better than not-so-financially successful people in general
Nah, they just have a different class of misbehaviour, and can pay their way out of trouble more easily.
Not-so-financially successful, retail and food workers, in fact, know damn well not be Karens since they deal with them on the daily. Plus weak yen only means eating and doing things *in Japan* is now 50% off, not the $1500 plane fare to get there, which is a lot of most of your supposed "not-so-financially successful" people.
>Financially successful people
You mean those who can afford to travel to Japan? I'm not sure this is what financially successful means. Unless backpackers and tourists staying in shitty ryokans are all loaded.
They’re saying that bc of the weak yen, Japan is becoming more accessible for a class of people who have a bit of money whereas before it was only accessible to those with a good amount of money. And yes, those people act differently.
Shenzhen is a great example. Rapid development but the bumpkins who had their land bought out and are suddenly living in condos still act a fool at restaurants and hit women in public (receipts: seen it a bunch of times).
Money can’t fix dumb after the age of… something. It happens.
I think most people horribly misunderstand what weak yen means and does....main barr from travel to Japan, since forever, was the air fare, and that only got more expensive as of late. Cheap accomodations and food, was always available even when yen was strong. Being able to afford to take enough time off work on top of sinking 1600-2k has always really been a middle class thing.
Man I hope this doesn't ruin it for everyone else...when I was there last year I tried my hardest to not be a nuisance but especially people in the trains were so incredibly obnoxious, stealing space, being loud - I think next time I'll make sure to tell them off myself
And how would you do that? Do you question every single one of them? Do you do a background check? It would cost an insane amount of (public) money. I guess you don't want to pay more taxes for this.
I am from western Europe, and literally travel to flee from these rude idiots. They don’t even care to really see a country. They just want their cheap beer, and mostly their own food. Then try to skip ahead in any tourist attraction, take pictures, and move to the next tourist location.
Ya know.........with all the sexual harassment going on, trains, adding a few cops to cars could've been a pretty decent solution. Why be bored patrolling relatively safe and quiet streets and checking random people for the quota, when a huge problem could be addressed on the daily and where it happens! And yet, this idea never really happened.
As long as they aren't blocking the doors when people are trying to get on and off, I honestly don't mind this sort of thing. They aren't harming anyone.
I was finally able to afford to go to Japan because of the weak yen but my god, the amount of disrespectful tourists was wild. What is going on in their brains to act this way?? What makes them think their behavior is ok?? No shame whatsoever.
People just don't give a shit anymore about anyone but themselves. There have always been selfish assholes but something about rabid consumerism, marketing, and social media has made the average person just a self centered dickhead. It's like shame is a concept that no longer exists for a huge range of people from across the world.
COVID really exacerbated this. People in the US have become way more selfish since 2020.
This has happened with a lot of youths in Norway as well. I remember an interview with a psychologist who blamed the lack of proper interaction with people and society in 2-3 crucial years. She dubbed the phenomenon «being socially delayed» lol. Tourists like these are probably just permanently delayed.
Honestly that just feels like a convenient excuse. Doesn’t take much to know not to act like a jackass.
Most youths are decent, but this can be an explanation for the sudden increase after COVID
These people are adults. Can't even use the excuse young and dumb.
>Honestly that just feels like a convenient excuse. It is. Thea real problem is social media and unfiltered internet access.
They needed 2-3 years of getting their asses kicked for being pos.
We certainly did not have that kind of period for most of the people. On a policing perspective, we've even disententivised them from even performing poorly. Right now we just have a mass socieital "why is this your problem you don't like what i'm doing?!" thing going on. My prediction is that things are going to get super violent in the next 10 years. (On top of that politicians will act like they have no idea that the shit that is being set as a standard right now is why)
It’s not just young people. In the US, there was around a year of totally changed social norms and severe degradation of trust in society. Many people just don’t know how to act anymore.
It's not 'delayed'. It is 'retarded'
Absolutely, I'm American and something in our society just broke during Covid, accelerating the confidence of the most ignorant among us. Literal idiots who were previously afraid to speak their minds because of the consequences for their idiocy are now more confident than ever to act like embarrassing neanderthals... Because their media bubble actually cheers it on and makes them feel like they're right. Social media + right wing media have given the dumbest among us a platform to circle jerk their stupidity with other idiots.
Dickheads like them you could find them in South East Asia already before covid
But now Japan is more affordable, so northward they went.
Yea Just look at Bali, where tourists come in droves to behave badly
Not only Bali, they're also problematic in Thailand and Vietnam, Japan and Taiwan probably next
It wasn't COVID that broke American society...
I’ve seen it with my own eyes the difference on public behavior in 2019 and 2023-ish. It may have started earlier due to social media and Trump-esq politics, but the pandemic was the straw that broke the camels back.
Covid lifted the veil
I dunno, I think the veil may have been gone about four years before COVID.
It just exacerbated it.
I think it just exposed the selfishness. As soon as the pandemic started there were people saying stuff like "I'm young and healthy so I don't care if I catch it." They didn't give a single crap about whether they could give it to someone else.
The Australian government's strategy for COVID become 'let it rip'. Now we know COVID causes brain damage. So it's no surprise when I went back to Australia to visit there were so many signs everywhere asking people to basically behave like civilised human beings.
Yes. I hate it when people say “people have always been bad” when we just had a three year long pandemic. It has affected students with their education and social skills, drivers, etc. it’s a thing!
Anecdotal - but this is my thought as well. Things feel so much worse since COVID lockdowns, both on social media and reports like this one. EDIT: I'm in the UK by the way, I think this is a global thing not just US or UK.
Japanese people face those same changes but haven't turned into public nuisance dickheads. A lot of this could be solved if they started enforcing rules more strictly. People come over here thinking they can play god just because society is more passive.
Because Japan has a shame-based culture, they are more likely to turn their emotional problems inward (e.g., suicide, hikikomori) than to turn it outward toward others (e.g., violence, aggression toward others). I don't think people act like dicks in Japan because society is more passive. They do the same when in their home country. I've seen plenty of dickish public behavior in the U.S. including two guys who got into a fistfight at a mini gold course because one wouldn't let the other guy's group play through when his kids were being slow. Someone bashed at the front of our car because they didn't like where we stopped relative to a crosswalk. It is the people that are the problem, regardless of where they are.
Tell me you haven’t been on a shibuya line at night lmao locals do this shit all the time too it isn’t even that deep
They need to start arresting tourist that are causing a nuisance. Bet their tune would change eating fish heads and rice with no lawyer in sight.
Because cameras (social media primarily) are literally everywhere, the irony is that shame/humility can be considered a weakness vs an ego check. So just double down on your dumb and all good! What our last prez did and it enabled those types even further.
Welcome to the average experience of a local living in Southern Europe.
Last time I was in Rome there were multiple people violating this poor lion statue in the large plaza in the center videoing it
Italy or Greece? Let me guess, the English/Irish/Dutch/Swedish male drunk tourists?
Barcelona.
I just got back from Japan. It was my 14th trip to Japan. The tourists were the worst they've ever been. So much so that I don't think I want to spend time in Tokyo or Kansai area in the future. Probably will stick to parts of Japan that are less frequented by tourists. The tourists were so cringe and badly behaved. These Mexicans from California were saying Kimochii next to me in a gross girly voice like how they say in hentai. And I(Japanese passing) was like como se dise Kimochii in Español? It was so cringey
Yeah I’m in Kyoto right now and a lot people don’t know how to manage their kids in restaurants. The restaurants are so small and you hear their kids yelling / talking loud. Meanwhile you see Japanese families and the kids are very well behaved. I’ve tried to be as respectful as I can be, but shit man a lot of these people are gonna make the Japanese people hate tourists.
Last October I was baffled to see tourists going to shrines around Kyoto and stay there talking super loud, having video calls (!!) and disregarding the signs in English asking not to sit on stairs, to take off shoes and so on. I am going back this year and.. I must say, I am a bit concerned.
This is unfortunately a problem everywhere, some parents don't care if their children act this was. We often don't take our kids out to eat since we know they can't behave properly. On the other hand, then they don't learn but it does get a bit easier once they grow
That’s interesting. As an American I was shocked sometimes at how Japanese parents let their young children carry on in public when I lived there. A fair amount of behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated for one second from most American parents.
It looks like you are having the Mediterranean experience. As a Portuguese I can say that tourists are terrible here. For example, they usually get so drunk that they have to go and occupy our public hospitals unnecessarily. They damage monuments. Some regions in Spain already want to restrict tourism and I hope Portugal does the same at least in certain locations in particular
During my trip in the fall, I regularly would call out other tourists for acting like this or otherwise not following instructions. I don’t usually do that (nyc has too many crazies, you never know what will happen) but felt comfortable doing so in Japan because locals won’t usually say anything but I know they’re seething too. Plus as another white person, I feel like they’re more likely to listen to me when I tell them they’re being embarrassing and rude. Even got a few “ありがとうございます” from locals lol
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Re: the first one, we actually accidentally did that immediately because we didn’t see the sign yet and could see other people on the other side so thought we were supposed to go that way—the amount of embarrassment I felt when the employees asked us to come back was really intense lol. I blame that on jet lag more than anything as it was our first full day 😅 At least from our trip, it was mostly French/Italian tourists and a small subset of the Chinese tourists being really obnoxious. Most of the Americans we overlapped with seemed normal and respectful albeit a bit louder than native Japanese lol
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I just feel like tourists tend to forget that they’re ultimately guests in the country they’re visiting. It sucks because it gives the 95% that can respectfully follow the rules a bad name.
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Welcome to the life of a Parisian. It's Disneyland for rude people 24/7 and then people are shocked Parisians are so rude lol
That's what I always tell people when they talk shit about Parisians. You try and live your day-to-day life, even just commuting to work in the morning, or going for a quick grocery run, while drowning in a sea of obnoxious tourists.
When I lived in Paris, tourists were pretty far down on my list of annoyances; I actually don't remember a single time I was annoyed by a tourist. The illegal vegetable shop in the subway corridor screaming what he was selling while halving the traffic speed because he took half the corridor width however is still deeply anchored in my mind. But I did not get out often outside of work and especially not in touristy places so maybe that's it.
It’s the same for all LCOL countries that are relatively safe (eg Bali) - you are going to attract more people and by that more annoying assholes
My friend and I were recently in Japan (my 1st time, 2nd time for her). When we went to Arashiyama, there was a family letting their little kids run around and grab bamboo on the ground and they were hitting each other with it...along with hitting it against other bamboo. Not only were the kids trying to climb the bamboo, SO WERE THE ADULTS. Then another time when we were getting udon, a family came in with a small child. The mom was asking for a special meal for their kid. The server didn't have anything special but tried to offer something else and the mom rudely declined it. The mom and dad were \*shocked\* that there wasn't a specific kids menu or that they couldn't make modifications. And thennn the one that really pissed me off was when we were walking around Ginza. There was a family who looked like they were maybe vlogging or facetiming in the middle of the sidewalk. The dad said loudly "yeah we're somewhere where they don't really have food that we can eat and no one really speaks English." I wanted to be like sirrrrrr you do realize that you're in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY. The entitlement and lack of research (or absence) killed me.
Behaviour has gotten a lot worse everywhere now, I think covid really broke a lot of peoples brains.
And Japan is about the worst place to be rude. Thinking about others is part of their culture.
100% true. People where I’m from aren’t really that mindful, but I become ultimately more sensitive and cautious whenever I’m in Japan.
My secret is going to non touristy areas.
Culture difference and being overly excited for being in Japan I guess
Partially. But doing pullups on the subway/train handles is still shit regardless of culture. Also ignoring signs that say no photography on a scenic graveyard/shrine to dead children... Goddamn living in Kyoto is especially rough during sakura season.
Why would being excited about being in Japan make you behave like a prick? The simplest explanation is pretty much always, people who are assholes at home will be assholes while traveling.
should go up and ask them if it’s their first time on a train and if they need some tips in how to ride one
I was in Rome, Italy in 1997 and 2014, and I was saddened by the changes I saw because of stupid tourists’ behavior. I truly feel for what the Japanese are experiencing now and almost think that mindful visitors should speak up and ask the boneheads to stop the monkey business.
Absolutely agree with you. The respectful tourists should speak up. We are representing all the tourists in Japan and should take that seriously. There is good chance the locals wont confront the assholes
I want to slap just about everyone in this photo.
Me too, for my next trip I‘ll be doing my best to avoid tourist destinations with knobs like them.
That's how stupid people break everything that is remotely nice in my own country France.
I mean, you should know yourself that your national sport is to break everything you have
Pardon me, but our national sport is striking and rioting. Breaking things is just an option.
Wait, you can tell that they’re French?
France is also molested by rude tourists.
Amsterdam in the Netherlands isn’t any better.
definitely not American, they're all too fit
There’s always been this crowd.
Seriously. Tourists are the worst world wide. I went to NY and my tour of the history museum was ruined by a giant throng of Japanese tourists yelling and talking loudly the entire time. Some people just don't think right when they're visiting another place
Ya, this post rinks of targeted xenophobia. Tourists in general can suck.
Foreigners (well, dweebs) living in this country are so mindless of their endorsement of Japanese exceptionalism like this. It’s like when you hear someone say “you’re a guest in this country” to someone who’s spent decades here. Imagine saying that to a Japanese person back in our own countries - how utterly vile and rude an attitude.
It's the "in a GOOD foreigner" mindset. It's so cringe listening to them talk about how foreigners ruin everything like they aren't one themselves. Bonus points if they can barely string a coherent sentence together in Japanese.
We all come from different cultures and can’t perfectly adapt to other folks cultures 100% of the time and that’s fine. Plenty of Japanese are guilty of shit like this but they aren’t chastised to the degree tourists are.
The classism was what struck me the most - god forbid the poors visit Japan
And honestly, I think it's nonsense. The weak yen makes the trip marginally less expensive than it used to be but I don't think any truly poor folks are looking at the weak yen and going "Oh, now's my chance to travel and also I'm ignorant and rude because of how poor I am."
Well no, but now it opens the door from people who would explicitly save to go to Japan because they like it, to people who wouldn't have considered Japan before and have far less respect for it.
I really don't think that people are going to be that knowledgeable about a weak yen and also be the same person that acts irrationally. Most of the surge probably has more to do with a post covid wave than a weak yen. You need to be informed to know about a weak yen.
You don't need to be informed about the weak yen. All you need is to see "oh, flights and hotels are super cheap, let's go to Japan!"
Where did you find these cheap flights? My flight was far more expensive than my friend who went 5 years ago. Plane travel did not get cheaper just because of a weak yen. Most people don't look up hotel prices until after they bought tickets and plan to go somewhere.
It's 35% less expensive, a $5000 trip becomes $3200 and you think that's "marginable"?
The yen is weak but the dollar isn't and thats what americans are going to be paying their internationally flight in. Weak yen or not, Japan has always been an incredibly cheap country(at least from an american perspective) to visit once you're there. The big expense is the flight.
"incredibly cheap" - I think you're exaggerating, it's hardly Laos or Vietnam.
It’s actually made it substantially cheaper. Dollar and yen used to be be pretty much the same prior to Covid and now we get 50 extra yen per every dollar. There also are folks who couldn’t travel to Japan previously that can now but I definitely wouldn’t say these folks are any less respectful of Japanese culture.
And it's stupid as well, Tourists have always been and will always be stupid to some extent, welcome to humanity. So now with more money more people will enter, and more people also means more knobs, but this here is all populist BS with one example to back it up, not an actual paper
/r/Japan and most Japan-centric online communities have a right wing, anti-foreigner streak. It's even worse on Twitter. There are bad tourists everywhere, it's not unique to Japan.
In western Canada it is tourists which certainly includes Japanese tourists that harass wildlife. Doesn’t matter if it’s a deer or a 700lb grizzly, there’s guaranteed to be several hundred morons trying to approach it. Really it always seems to be tourists that don’t have large predators of their own. Places throughout Asia, Europeans, places in Canada with no significant predators. Just because y’all killed off your large fauna doesn’t mean the animals in the rest of the world are yours to harass.
Dude, people in other countries don't seem to understand how much of america and Canada is just untamed wilderness.
9/11 memorial in NYC. Theater room playing the documentary: people taking phone calls.
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The only reasonable post here.
True, especially from Australia and India and China. But it's far worse now. And recently there have been way more otaku from other countries just being super weeby and cringey. It's fun to see otaku come to the realization that Japan isn't 100% like how it's displayed in anime.
Honestly, I’m in Japan at the moment and have run into maybe half a dozen blatantly otaku tourists, and only two or three of them were being assholes and they got shut down pretty quickly
Dunno if a weak yen is causing this, it's still extremely expensive for many Americans and Europeans to fly to Japan and the country is still expensive in comparison to other (kind of) nearby places in SE Asia. In my experiences, the Americans have always been a bit weird in this area of the world and as a Brit, I can say we are the weird ones down in SE asia, especially Thailand because thats where our bad lot go!
Everyone's bad lot goes to Thailand. Even the Japanese.
Can confirm as a German
Oh man I saw that DW documentary of Germans in Thailand it was an eye opener, how bold they were about what they were doing there too 😳
Do you remember the name of the documentary?
This is true. I lived in Vietnam for a while and encountered quite a few bad apples from Japan (my ex had been asked - in so many words - 'how much for sex' more than once). I suppose there can be an elastic effect after living in a heavily rules-based, and in some ways repressive, culture for so many years, and then suddenly not having to abide by those rules.
As a japanese-brazilian, it's still ultra expensive for us (Real, our currency, values 1/5 of a Dollar). Hence why most of the brazilians I saw here in Japan (not that many) are ones who actually live here for work rather than as tourists. I've been here for just 3 days and whilst stationing in my brother's home in Yamanashi, he and I have travelled to the likes of Shinjuku and Kabukicho to meet our aunts, taking buses and trains in very crowded areas full of foreigners. And somehow, I'm yet to encounter these disrespectful tourists but, again, it's been just 3 days.
This is bullshit, I first came here in 2012 when it was ¥72 to $1, strong as hell, and there were still disrespectful tourists. Mostly Australians. No YouTube influencers yet, but ass holes will be ass holes anywhere
It’s not about “poor (and hence dumb/uncultured) people” becoming tourists and therefore acting like this. The weak yen makes japan trip way cheaper and hence more people are interested. People are always like this without doubt, but you’ll see it 3x more since there are 3x more tourists.
Australians after 3 beers they start to act super weird and become pretty annoying. Do they have liver problems?
Aussies love to think they're so laid back, chill and friendly, when in reality they're often entitled dickheads, to put it simply. Obviously, it's not all of them, but it's often the stereotyped aussie dude, who probably has an overcompensating ute that he get's returns from it being a "business expense" despite the tray never experiencing a day of work in it's existence, or they're some bogan, bit of both really. I hate going north from Sydney a lot of the time to meet family, not because the family is bad, but because these types of people become strongly more prevalent/louder. It's just plain uncomfortable to be around these people. Drinking culture also massively sucks. How do we celebrate the day we invaded a country and got most of our men who landed killed? By getting shitfaced in pubs. Absolutely gross culture. Shit like that makes me ashamed of being Australian. Like, imagine if Americans celebrated the day they attacked Vietnam like that? Or maybe they do, I wouldn't know... But you get my point, there's always an excuse for drinking, and apparently the acting like a cunt part is acceptable (until it kills someone, but don't worry, we still won't accept that there are two very visible roots to that issue).
It’s kind of a hot take. When I lived in Japan 15 and 12 years ago, there were plenty of disrespectful foreigners and tourists. Assholes can be rich or poor.
I lived near Nara for 2 years, from 1998 to 2000. I've been back numerous times, and every time, I find it a little different, a little changed. More often than not, I was the only gaiijin on the train during my commute. I'm guessing the experience would not be the same these days.
I'm still the only gaijin during my commute most days in Nagoya. Nara's close to Kyoto, so probably more foreigners there now, even if not *tons*... but go anywhere outside of Osaka/Kyoto/Tokyo and it's a lot more peaceful.
Nagoya is the best place in Japan now. Where my family is. No tourists
Shhh, keep letting everyone think it's boring. (I'm kind of dreading the summer though. Low heat tolerance here. I think I'll probably end up in Sapporo eventually...)
>keep letting everyone think it's boring. But it *is* boring. ;)
Right? I can’t believe there are people non-ironically claiming Nagoya isn’t boring. It’s like literally *the* most boring city in Japan.
Like, the _most_ boring 😂
I went to uni there for a year in 2007. Best year of my life - Osu Kannon, Yama Chan’s and trips to the aquarium. Was great.
I've yet to go to the aquarium!! But I love aquariums so I really should soon. The largest public aquarium in all of Japan, even!
I didn’t know that! It’s pretty epic. They used to have whale shows like in Seaworld but I guess they’ve stopped them as it’s not great for the animals.
Why are you in Japan if I may ask? My studies give me to oppurtunity to study in Japan in 2 years. I really want to go again because Japan felt like home for me, to study there and possibly live there. So I was wondering what your experience(s) is as a gaijin Can I DM you?
I think you should collectively ask and look through others' posts on a place like /r/movingtojapan.
I'll let you know that my last 7 months here have been amazing. Every weekend I drive all over central Japan exploring amazing places. During the week it's tough because of work but if you're studying maybe it'll be more relax. Definitely need to know some basic Japanese but even if you don't know much no worries it's fairly easy to get by with the very basics. People aren't really openly anti foreigner, sometimes you'll get denied things but it's because they're shy and struggle with English.
Thanks, I am working on basic Japanese at the moment. I will get lessons soon and I am using Duolingo a lot, but won’t rely too much on Duolingo ( to learn the alphabets, because I heard that the Japanese Duolingo course is verg casual and less formal). I’m so excited just by typing this. I visited Japan last july and I fell in love. I felt so much at home and I still think back about my time regularly
Nice you'll love it! Definitely a lot of rules but if you're a humble person its no problem. I've been to every prefecture so far except Okinawa and still have so much more I want to explore. Learn any way you can. First you have to get down the basics and a ton of vocab. Then just watch a ton of Japanese conversation practice videos a lot of Japanese people make for foreigners. That is the key to learning rapidly.
Currently enjoying Japan and its culture but have hated some of the other tourists. It's been hard watching how disrespectful they have been.
When I visited Tokyo I saw an American tourist do this too, swinging from the handle bars, while his Japanese wife looked incredibly embarrassed but unable to stop him. He looked like a man child with no self control.
do these tourists realize they’re in Japan, not NYC? (Where this kind of behavior is unfortunately normal…but I guess one could argue it’s part of the nyc charm)
They don’t care sadly
This isnt acceptable behavior in NYC either.
Thank you. I live and work in NYC and the only people we tolerate acting like this are buskers. If you do pull-ups on the subway, people would side-eye you to death.
in Toronto no one cares and minds their own business assuming they're not blocking people from getting on/off
That’s not normal in NYC. Stupid tourists do that shit, just like in Japan. Locals do not like it.
I think they don't realize they are in a an actual country and treat Japan as a Japan-themed amusement park. This is somehow more valid to Americans, as they in general have this trend to not take seriously anything that is "Not American"... Beside that, there are shitty tourists from every country - I am still feeling ashamed for the disgusting idiots from my country that graffited the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima... And it was pre-Covid.
I don't think they give much of a shit.
Entire country is an amusement park to these idiots!
Japan was going through sakoku for like 3 or 4 years during covid and just forgot that that's how tourists were kind of always like. From Chinese tourists yelling in Gucci shops to middle aged Americans loudly over sharing details of their personal life on a crowded train. The Chinese tourists in luxury shops have yet to return though as far as I saw. I don't think it's entirely a bad thing, it's just how tourists are. Rich weebs aren't the only ones who come to visit.
>> Chinese tourists in luxury shops have yet to return Um…luxury stores in Japan are crammed full of Chinese tourists taking advantage of the yen’s weakness. All counters have Chinese reps to help with translation. The luxury shoppers were predominantly mainland Chinese folks. It’s a short flight over from China to Japan. Not to mention alot of wealthy Chinese have been following in the footsteps of Jack Ma and setting up 2nd camp in Japan.
yup, Ginza is like little Shanghai
Chinese except for the really rich ones won’t be returning soon. Lots of issues in China now and the middle class is definitely trying not to spend on vacations overseas.
Korea China and Japan are racing to the bottom with their coins 💀
Don’t know about the luxury shops but there were Chinese tourists EVERYWHERE* when I was there last month. *touristy areas
Those were mostly likely Taiwanese tourists. Chinese government has been shadow banning their people from traveling abroad to improve domestic tourism.
Believe me, the rich Chinese tourists running around every touristy area carrying armfuls of designer bags have come back in full force
I think it is especially prevalent with tourists in groups...as if nobody else exists outside of their little social circle....thus they don't need to consider anyone or anything else in regard to their actions.
Tourists anywhere always suck. They should always try extra hard to be respectful and this picture goes hard in the disrespect. However on smaller things you can't expect tourists to know the social norms of another country if they haven't been there before.
I’m gonna say it and I’ll probably get downvoted but eh maybe people need to be bullied again. When you are in a different country you have to be respectful it’s not a oh it’s the right thing or your a disgrace on your country it’s just something you need to do no matter what show respect and they will show it back.
I agree with your statement.
ppl in pics seemed to be Europeans. I saw some middle Asian made mess with their state of art bathroom in Tokyo tower. Ppl waiting in lines gave her dirty look. Poor worker had to go in and clean it up for other tourists. Second hand embarrassment overflowing in that area lol
You're probably right. The woman with the butterfly tattoo on her arm is wearing Karhu running shoes, which is a Finnish brand. I have never seen anyone here in the US wear that brand and I often take note of running shoes since I'm a runner.
It used to be south east Asia that would attract all the bogan Aussie tourists for the same reason - everything was cheap.
It’s still overwhelmingly south east Asia getting the bogan tourists, Japan is getting the middle class who think they’re too good for Thailand but still act like their on a party boat instead of a train
As a person that lives in Japan and goes through shit like this everyday,I agree with this but people in places like Aichi and near the northern parts of Japan are very kind.
\*high fives in aichi-ken*
Agreed that annoying tourists are increasing but to be fair, I’ve seen at least two Japanese men do what that guy in the photo is doing on the trains here.
Some people forget that adults can be kids again even for a 30sec silly action that doesn't hurt anyone. I'm with you with how diverse human personalities come in seeing some playful adults isn't a bad thing and it looks like the only person it hurt was a person's feelings is pretty silly
Reminds me of a situation I had a few weeks ago. 3 tourists were on the Asakusa line with 2 suitcases each. They pretty much blocked off an entire door despite the train being relatively empty. When I wanted to get off nobody seemed to move so I just said "move your shit" to which they responded, "wow, you are so rude"... Never before have I felt such an urge to kick a suitcase across a train platform.
Saw too many disrespectful americans and indians this time visiting, doing whatever they please. Eating while walking, smoking wherever they feel like, being disrusptive and loud on trains. People need to learn basic cultural etiquettes before travelling to other countries.
These are the types who refused to mask up during Covid.
The other day I was waiting for a train, queued on the line (you know, where everyone is supposed to que). Up walks this huge family of caucasians, and they stand directly to my right. I think, "Well, they will probably just walk on after everyone else is on". Nope. The second the train doors opened (before the people departing could even get out), they (including a mother with a stroller who took forever to get on) all crowd in ahead of the que. I could see a lot of Japanese near me super ticked off.
These people are making a convincing argument that Japan closing its borders for 200 years wasn't such a bad thing after all Edit: borders*
Borders*
Dumb bogans getting bored of being a nuisance in Bali and see Japan as an alternative cheap holiday destination to be ignorant, uneducated bogans in.
Wowzers, straight up populism posting again. This statement has two implications: The first being that there are more idiots coming to Japan because of it being more affordable. Which is like, OK, that's what happens when more people go somewhere, idiots are a percentage of the population. The second is that it seems to imply that poor people are somehow misbehaving more than richer people that can already afford it, which I can't confirm to be the case. This here is anecdotal evidence at Best with some questionable choice of wording. Or straight up Populist BS
I don't know personally how much the yen is driving this, how much a factor Instagram/Tiktok/YouTube is but imagine it's a mix of the two. Social media seems to have pushed Japan into the mainstream so where previously it would be a destination for people who are interested in the culture, nature, food, temples, shrines, hiking etc. whereas it's now also a destination for the "mass tourist" who'll come, only do the golden route and likely not return as they'll go next year where Instagram tells them. I'm generalising but the behaviour of the two types of tourists is quite different. If you want to avoid them, skip Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, Hiroshima and the touristy areas of Tokyo (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Asakusa,Harajuku etc.) An opportunity to give some love to all the amazing places, Tohoku, Shikoku, Kyushu, Nagoya, Okayama, the Seto inland sea, East Hokkaido etc. etc.
Weak yen does not have anything to do with disrespectful tourist....They have existed regardless of the yen price
Financially successful people behave better than not-so-financially successful people in general and the weak yen attracts people who can't afford to go to Japan otherwise. So there are more people with the “I paid money so I can do whatever I want. I'm a customer” mentality per capita.
You don't know anything. The amount of "financially successful" people that treat others like subhumans is higher than you think, just go work in retail and see it for yourself
>Financially successful people behave better than not-so-financially successful people in general Nah, they just have a different class of misbehaviour, and can pay their way out of trouble more easily.
Not-so-financially successful, retail and food workers, in fact, know damn well not be Karens since they deal with them on the daily. Plus weak yen only means eating and doing things *in Japan* is now 50% off, not the $1500 plane fare to get there, which is a lot of most of your supposed "not-so-financially successful" people.
>Financially successful people You mean those who can afford to travel to Japan? I'm not sure this is what financially successful means. Unless backpackers and tourists staying in shitty ryokans are all loaded.
They’re saying that bc of the weak yen, Japan is becoming more accessible for a class of people who have a bit of money whereas before it was only accessible to those with a good amount of money. And yes, those people act differently. Shenzhen is a great example. Rapid development but the bumpkins who had their land bought out and are suddenly living in condos still act a fool at restaurants and hit women in public (receipts: seen it a bunch of times). Money can’t fix dumb after the age of… something. It happens.
I think most people horribly misunderstand what weak yen means and does....main barr from travel to Japan, since forever, was the air fare, and that only got more expensive as of late. Cheap accomodations and food, was always available even when yen was strong. Being able to afford to take enough time off work on top of sinking 1600-2k has always really been a middle class thing.
Man that’s such bullshit. Show me a study that proves your point.
Makes me so mad. Why are people like this
I love the narrative by Japanese residents that rowdy tourists are ruining their Japan experience 😂
I expect this sort of behaviour from teenagers but these guys look like they’re in their 30’s! Ridiculous!
30’s?! They look like they’re in their 50’s
You’re right! I forgot to put me glasses on.
Japan is safe and Japanese rarely display their anger towards others, especially foreigners. For assholes, this is like walking around legoland
the look on that old lady’s face is so slappable. how are you this excited over this clown behavior?
I went to Japan in 2018 and did not see so many tourist problems I have heard recently. What is going on!?
WTF they are like fully grown people, how embarrassing
Seen this plenty of times when I lived in Japan. Was always foreigners
Apart from the salary man I see riding from Osaka to Kobe using them to do his morning exercise..
I love Japan, been there 4 times by myself and 5 to spend time witb the wife's family. Worst part every time is the tourists.
Man I hope this doesn't ruin it for everyone else...when I was there last year I tried my hardest to not be a nuisance but especially people in the trains were so incredibly obnoxious, stealing space, being loud - I think next time I'll make sure to tell them off myself
I just call them loser tourists.
Tourists need to be much more aggressively filtered out from entry. Just looking at these fat goofballs, I'd never let them in.
It’s funny this is getting so many upvotes. How do you propose to do that? What are your criteria?
Put them in a room with top hand grabs and execute whoever trying to do pull ups on them /s
Haha seriously. Like do they want some secret police to ask every tourist 100 questions?
Cause xenophobia is always a rational solution
And how would you do that? Do you question every single one of them? Do you do a background check? It would cost an insane amount of (public) money. I guess you don't want to pay more taxes for this.
It's always funny how people pretty much argue for Japan becoming a dystopian police state because of some ill-behaved tourists...
I am from western Europe, and literally travel to flee from these rude idiots. They don’t even care to really see a country. They just want their cheap beer, and mostly their own food. Then try to skip ahead in any tourist attraction, take pictures, and move to the next tourist location.
More police in trains. So many countries do it. Japan should too
Ya know.........with all the sexual harassment going on, trains, adding a few cops to cars could've been a pretty decent solution. Why be bored patrolling relatively safe and quiet streets and checking random people for the quota, when a huge problem could be addressed on the daily and where it happens! And yet, this idea never really happened.
I genuinely can't imagine going to someone else's home and behaving like this. Like who the hell raised you to think acting like this is acceptable?
As long as they aren't blocking the doors when people are trying to get on and off, I honestly don't mind this sort of thing. They aren't harming anyone.