Japan has found the three most serious problems of the massive arrival of tourists. And none has to do with tourists

Summer has confirmed two things around Japan’s tourist success: avalanche has been bigger than expected, and the nation I wasn’t so prepared As I believed. In fact, they have even had the idea of give away flights to foreigners to encourage them beyond the congested Tokyo. In contrast to tourist hordes, Japanese They barely travel To other countries. And that explains many of the evils that the country is finding quite well.

The shadow of discomfort. Japan has passed in just two decades of being considered a expensive destination and reserved for a few to become one of the main tourist poles World Cups The number of foreign visitors has grown from 6.7 million in 2005 to almost 37 million in 2024with 2025 on the way to beat a new record. The government aspires to reach 60 million in 2030supported by the global manga popularity, anime and Japanese culture, as well as events such as Tokyo Olympic Games and Osaka’s Expo.

The problem? That what I know promoted how A “Inbound Tourism Boom” has become qualified by many as “tourist”, with agglomeration scenes at famous crosses such as Kamakurakomoe’s or in Kyoto’s temples. The initial enthusiasm has given way To growing complaints On noise, strange manners, garbage and pressure on housing and hospitality prices.

The weight of the economy and demography. However, when the nation has counted the evils of such discomfort, it has been found that the main problems He has them at homeit was not. Behind that discomfort underlies a psychological element linked to the relative decline of Japan. The strong devaluation of Yen It has made the country cheap for foreigners, but at the same time it has reduced the ability of Japanese young people to travel abroad.

For a population that ages quickly (With 16% of over 75 years old) see tourists who marvel at how cheap it is everything A humiliating contrast With the eighties, when Japan was the most expensive country in the world and its own boomers they toured the planet with the latest generation cameras. He Hotel increase (more than double since 2021) and the pressure On rentals In cities such as Kyoto generate the feeling that the economic benefits of tourism do not translate into real improvements in the life of residents.

Kyoto redefinition. If there is a place that embodies the debate, it is Kyoto. The old capital, famous for its temples and their geishas, ​​is so congested that many Japanese today consider it an awkward destination and even avoid traveling there. School excursions, once a passage rite, They deviate to cities such as Kanazawa or Nagasaki due to delays, agglomerations and increasing costs.

For the inhabitants, the avalanche has raised rentals and Modified social fabricto the point that some experts ensure that the city already meets the definition of Overtourism: When the normal life of its residents is compromised.

Historical memory and new tensions. It is not the first time that Japan faces a tourist saturation problem. In the sixties and seventies, internal prosperity generated OLADAS OF DOMESTIC TRAVELS that transformed cities such as Kyoto or Nara, with complaints similar to the current ones. Remembered the Financial Times that then There was talk of “Tourist pollution”, and some anthropologists warned that residents ran the risk of becoming “strangers of strangers” in their own land.

Today that Speech resurfacesamplified by social networks with viral tourist videos chasing geishashanging of toriis or violating rules of coexistence. A new term has even coined, “Touristphobia”to describe the mixture of tiredness, irritation and rejection that generates the massification, sometimes dyed of a xenophobic background.

Tourism as a political weapon. The issue has entered fully into Japanese politics. In full leadership election of the Democratic Liberal Party, figures as healthy takaichi They have turned the issue into a flag, linking the discomfort of tourists with the Immigration debates and the arrival of foreign workers, increasingly necessary for the shortage of labor.

The rhetoric against the “tourist abuse” intermingles with warnings about an alleged threat to national identity. Thus, the debate on tourism ceases to be just a matter of urban management to become a symbol of deeper anxieties about the future of the country.

The forgotten of the map. Meanwhile, they remembered In the Financial Times What regions like Fukui show the other face of the currency. With a recently extended bullet train from Tokyo, a world -class dinosaurs museum and outstanding cultural enclaves remains one of the prefectures less visited For foreigners.

Their hotels and transport fail to attract enough travelers and their problem is not excess, but The lack of tourists. There, the mayor admits that they have not yet seen or a trace of the hordes. This contrast reflects a central dilemma: Japan needs to better distribute the benefits of tourism, encourage repeated visits and direct the flow to still non -saturated areas, but lacks the infrastructure and political vision necessary to achieve it.

A nation mirror. The debate on tourism is ultimately a mirror of Japanese society. Talk about a country agingwho feels the pressure of A weak currencywhich recalls with nostalgia the times of its economic preeminence and that faces the Challenge of managing The massive arrival of foreigners in cities that are exceeded.

The challenge is not only to limit agglomerations, but in redefining the relationship between residents and visitors, between their own economy and coexistence, between opening and identity protection. Thus, Japan, which in the past exported millions of tourists, is now seen in the difficult position of learning to manage their own attraction.

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