Many Japanese are fed up with the bad behavior of tourists. Too often, foreign visitors violate traditions and damage places important to Japanese people.
For example, police yesterday arrested a 65-year-old American tourist who carved letters into a wooden gate at a shrine in Tokyo. The incident is considered a new example of bad behavior by tourists who have returned to Japan en masse since the pandemic.
Five letters
The American is said to have jokingly scratched one of the pillars of the gate at Meiji Jingu, one of the Japanese capital’s most famous shrines, with his fingernails. The news site Kyodo News reports that it concerns five letters on an area of 5 by 6 centimeters. A police spokesperson reports that the man has been arrested ‘on suspicion of damaging property’.
Last month, a woman from Chile drew criticism online after posting a video of herself pulling up to a red gate at another Japanese shrine. The fitness influencer, who has 139,000 followers on Instagram, later apologized on the platform, stating that I “didn’t mean to show any disrespect.”
Geishas harassed
Japan expects to welcome 60 million visitors annually by 2030, about double the record number from 2019. But many Japanese are fed up with tourists’ bad behavior. In tradition-rich Kyoto, locals complain about tourists harassing the city’s famous geishas.
A town near Mount Fuji posted in May as people increasingly took to the road to take the perfect photo. New crowd control measures have also been introduced on the most popular hiking trail on the mountain, which now has an entrance fee of 2,000 yen (13 euros).
