The Changing Face of Travel in Japan
- By Zen Gaijin
- Jun 16, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 28
We were among the last travelers in Japan when the country closed to tourism due to Covid-19. In our three trips since Japan reopened, we've been astonished by some of the changes, especially the enormous surge of tourists eager to visit. These visitors aren't just American travelers exploring the Golden Route between Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. There's also a significant influx from South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, with many venturing to remote destinations like Akita, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The weak yen has sparked a frenzy among both first-time and veteran travelers. Japan is now grappling with welcoming this flood of Post-Covid international tourists while adapting to significant changes—both positive and negative—in the tourism industry.
The rise of influencers has also transformed the travel landscape, with many visitors flocking to Instagram-popular locations. This has led to slower-moving crowds as tourists take multiple photos and videos. For example, in Kyoto, a city with more than 2,000 temples and shrines, social media has deemed just a few as “must-see,” resulting in unmanageable crowds at these spots while leaving the rest largely tourist-free.
Old Ways and New: The Benefits of Technology
Throughout Japan, life has largely returned to pre-Covid normalcy, although some pandemic-era practices remain. Hand sanitizers are ubiquitous, and while masking is no longer mandatory, it is still common for those in public-facing roles in hotels, restaurants, and stores.
Tourist-friendly business practices, technology and social media are having a radical impact on the Japanese travel experience, making some aspects of travel far easier. The preparation for the star-crossed 2020 Olympics included increased English signage across all types of transportation, including street signs, trains, metros, buses, and expressway signage. English announcements are now common on trains and in stations, and stations with direct access to major airports now have floor markings with English directions.
In addition, foreign credit cards are now widely-accepted in stores, train-stations and restaurants, allowing contactless payment (remember, however, that many businesses still operate on a cash-only basis). In major cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, you can easily withdraw Japanese yen from ATMs at such convenience stores―konbini―as 7-Elevens (which are much nicer than their American counterpart), Lawson and Family Mart, as well as at post offices. There also are more e-SIM options for mobile phones, replacing the need for wi-fi pucks.
On the downside, the cost of the once-invaluable JR Rail Pass has increased by a jaw-dropping 70%, making this time-honored tool less cost-effective for most travelers.
The Language Barrier: Eased by Technology
Perhaps the biggest game-changer is the increasing use of language translation apps, which can take much of the frustration out of the language barrier. This technology, along with the integration of the Suica IC card into iPhones for transportation and shopping, has made travel far more convenient. Shop clerks now routinely employ Google Translate to assist foreign shoppers, and the translation apps are now common in all types of social interaction, resulting in smiles on both sides. By all means, load Google Translate or Papago or Deepl on your phone.
Where Things Are Getting Ugly
Sadly, the insensitive and arrogant behavior of many tourists has triggered changes intended to preserve Japanese culture and local customs. Some are minor inconveniences. Japan does not follow the U.S. pattern of positioning trash cans everywhere; people are expected to take their trash home with them. This is a problem, of course, for tourists who have no “home,” but in astoundingly clean Japan, one still is expected to hold on to trash until it can be disposed of properly. Littering is a cultural insult, so please, please respect this cultural norm. Stores now charge for plastic bags, so you are wise to bring your own reusable bag or purchase one locally.
More significantly, tourists often show flagrant disregard for basic rules of courteous behavior, and the Japanese clearly are getting sick of it. Barriers have had to be added to boarding sites at the busiest train stations because passengers could not be bothered to remain behind the traditional yellow lines before boarding. Similarly, tourists’ common luggage overload had led to luggage restrictions on many popular Shinkansen trains. If you travel heavy with suitcases, be prepared to send much of it on ahead, using easy-to-use Takuhaibin luggage forwarding services.
Other tourist behaviors represent major cultural affronts. In the Gion district of Kyoto, for example, aggressive harassment of Geisha and Maiko by tourists―crowding them, touching their garments, shooting photos without permission―resulted in restricted access to certain areas and other streets being closed to non-residents altogether. At a popular Lawson near Mt. Fuji, tourists eager to shoot selfies so congested the site that the store installed a tall fence to obscure the view so that local customers could get in to shop.
Japanese restaurants tend to be small―often seating only eight to twelve―so that missed reservations represent a major economic blow. To protect themselves, many restaurants now demand deposits for reservations for high-end dining or large groups. Hotel concierges now often require guests to check in before making restaurant reservations because of frequent no-shows. We ourselves experienced the extreme: at a major hotel in a major city, the apologetic concierge informed us that the world-renowned restaurant we had journeyed to enjoy was accepting no reservations from gaijin. Period. This gaijin ban is not uncommon, partly because foreign travelers often fail to disclose allergies or dietary needs.
To address the increasingly-common boorishness of foreign travelers, signs in Tokyo and Kyoto now list disrespectful behaviors to avoid, such as eating while walking (a major social gaffe), talking loudly on public transportation, photographing anyone without their permission, or smoking in non-designated areas.
The Bottom Line
Post-Covid Japan is striving to accommodate the surge in international travelers. In response, what they ask is that you respect their efforts, their norms and their culture.