There is a meme circulating that the common millennial midlife disaster unfolds like this:
- Take up operating.
- Make home crops your whole character.
- Purchase an air fryer.
- Begin planning a visit to Japan.
Initially, ouch. However second of all, the accuracy.
The attract of Japan has referred to as to travellers (younger and outdated, for the file) for years, however particularly because the finish of the COVID-19 pandemic. The distinctive mixture of cultural traditions and cutting-edge modernity, its emphasis on wellness and aesthetic of comfort, and its pure landscapes and widespread points of interest are simply a part of what makes Japan so interesting to many.
Final yr, Japan was named one of the best nation to go to on this planet by the Conde Nast Readers’ Choice Awards.
And now, bolstered by a weak yen, it is also extra inexpensive, resulting in an unprecedented travel boom that noticed the nation cross the 10-million customer mark at its fastest-ever tempo this yr. For a lot of, it is a great addition, after tourism to Japan was all however halted for greater than two years in the course of the pandemic, because the nation put up a few of the world’s strictest border controls.
However now as Japan grapples with the surge, it has a brand new drawback: overtourism, with crowds affecting all the things from a few of its most sacred traditions to growing housing and resort costs.
“I am joyful there are such a lot of guests to Japan, however I am agonizing on daily basis,” Yoshiki Kojima, who owns an IT firm, advised the Japan Times in January about his struggles to search out inexpensive resort rooms for his workers once they journey to Tokyo.
“I’ve already given up,” Natsuki Sato, a mom who realized she couldn’t afford to purchase a house as a result of she lives close to a widespread ski resort the place tourism has pushed up property costs, advised the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on April 12.
And now, to assist cope, a few of Japan’s hottest tourism locations are reportedly rolling out a two-tier pricing system on all the things from restaurants to theme parks.
World demand for matcha is skyrocketing, however specialists say Japan’s restricted manufacturing and declining variety of tea farmers are inflicting provide shortages. As Leanne Yu experiences, some Vancouver companies hope by instantly sourcing from matcha farms, it is going to assist reduce the affect.
Canadian visits on the rise
Arrivals of international guests for enterprise and leisure reached 3.5 million final month, bringing the entire via the primary quarter to 10.54 million, knowledge from the Japan Nationwide Tourism Group (JNTO) confirmed.
Final yr, Japan reached 10 million guests in April.
For the entire of 2025, vacationer arrivals are on tempo to eclipse final yr’s all-time degree of 36.87 million. The nation’s famed cherry blossom season helped enhance demand in March, which noticed file arrivals for any single month amongst travellers from america and Canada, the JNTO stated.
And Canada was among the top 20 countries whose residents have visited Japan just lately, with 44,500 visits from Canadians recorded in February alone, up 31 per cent from final February. Over 550,000 Canadian vacationers visited final yr, up 37 per cent from the yr earlier than.
Proper now, $1 Cdn will get you about 103 yen — or in different phrases, a bowl of ramen can price about $5, and an ordinary hotel room about $200 an evening.
The weak spot of the yen in opposition to the Canadian greenback is an enormous draw proper now, says Aaron Petrowitsch, 32, a Calgarian who travelled to Tokyo and Kyoto for his honeymoon in February.
“Lots of people do not need to journey to the States proper now, and honest sufficient,” Petrowitsch advised CBC Information. “However different locations the place your cash goes a great distance, Japan is unquestionably a kind of locations.”
He and his spouse Sarah had initially deliberate a visit to Japan in 2020, which they needed to cancel resulting from COVID-19 journey restrictions. After they rebooked for his or her honeymoon, Petrowitsch says he was pleasantly stunned that the journey could be extra inexpensive than it will have been 5 years in the past.
“It is getting increasingly more widespread, that is for certain,” Petrowitsch stated, including that about two weeks after he bought again to Calgary, a colleague of his travelled to Japan along with his girlfriend, and he is aware of not less than one different colleague planning a visit.
Overtourism
However as extra vacationers flock to Japan, lots of them impressed by social media, what’s referred to as overtourism has grow to be a scorching matter.
“The problem will not be a lot with too many individuals going to Japan, however with too many individuals going to the identical locations whereas they’re there,” James Mundy of Inside Japan defined on the Responsible Travel web site.
“What vacationers and native communities need to do will not be generally harmonized,” Kenji Hamamoto of the Japan Tourism Company advised Travel Voice, a Japanese journey information website, in January.
Some areas and points of interest have taken additional measures. The historic geisha district of Gion in Kyoto, as an example, has banned tourists from some of its alleyways and personal streets in an try to manage those that have reportedly tried to force geisha and maiko to pose for photos or touched their kimonos.
Vacationers flocking Kamakura for a photograph op have grow to be so problematic that the city needed to add security guards to keep people away from its famed railway crossing.
And in Fujikawaguchiko, so many individuals have blocked roads or trespassed to get an Instagram-famous photo of the Lawson Convenience Shop by Mount Fuji that authorities needed to put up a barrier to dam the view. (They finally, quietly, took it back down, CNN experiences.)
In the meantime, a 400-year-old temple in Kyoto has been suffering from litter and unauthorized photograph shoots. And Mount Fuji has grow to be so overcrowded and littered by vacationers that some have referred to as it “trash mountain.”
Two-tier pricing?
To handle overtourism, some vacationer hotspots are growing their costs. Beginning in July, anyone who climbs Mount Fuji should pay 4,000 yen, or about $39 Cdn, for a allow — double the price of last year’s so-called “tourist tax.”
Beginning subsequent yr, Himeji Fortress in western Japan will charge tourists more than double its normal rate. A brand new nature-themed park referred to as Junglia Okinawa is charging 8,000 yen for a one-day move for vacationers, versus 6,300 yen for residents.
It has been reported that some restaurants are charging a tourist tax, corresponding to an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant in Tokyo that offers a discount for residents of Japan.
And in 2023, officers rolled out a 100-yen tourist tax to visitors at Miyajima, residence to the UNESCO World Heritage Itsukushima Shrine, to anybody getting into “by boat.”
Petrowitsch, from Calgary, says he did not actually discover a two-tier system on his go to, and when there was a lower cost for Japanese locals, it was “minimal.” He additionally says it doubtless will not deter him from visiting once more, except the worth distinction turns into drastic.
“We had such a good time.”
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