Writing in IT Media, Masaki Kubota criticizes recent media reports which portray overseas tourists as a scourge on local areas. He argues foreigners are often being scapegoated for problems endemic to Japanese society. www.itmedia.co.jp/business/art... - ThreadSky

mulboyne.bsky.social • 7 days ago

Writing in IT Media, Masaki Kubota criticizes recent media reports which portray overseas tourists as a scourge on local areas. He argues foreigners are often being scapegoated for problems endemic to Japanese society. https://www.itmedia.co.jp/business/articles/2502/19/news067.html

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mulboyne.bsky.social•7 days ago

He takes the example of care homes in Niseko which have closed because they can't keep up with rising wages fuelled by the tourist boom. He argues these businesses were not in great shape anyway, because the sector has long been neglected in Japan.

mulboyne.bsky.social•7 days ago

Reports intimate that the care homes would be fine if the tourist boom had not pushed wages up. In truth, finding and retaining staff is a challenge for the whole care industry, and the Niseko experience just shows how vulnerable it is at the margin.

mulboyne.bsky.social•7 days ago

Kubota says the media is largely free to portray overseas visitors in whatever fashion they like, because tourists probably won't see the programmes and reports. Even if they do, unlike local residents, they won't know how to go about registering a complaint.

mulboyne.bsky.social•7 days ago

The complaints about noise, crowds and manners portray all overseas visitors in a bad light, rather than recognizing that most are well-behaved. He notes that Japanese people are no strangers to bad behavior themselves, both abroad and at home.

mulboyne.bsky.social•7 days ago

Kubota's main concern is that reports demonizing overseas visitors can too easily create ill-will. They also oversimplify complex social problems, making it hard to find solutions for many of the genuine problems caused by the mismanagement of inbound tourism.

cheapogreg.bsky.social•7 days ago

My experience when you actually talk to overseas tourists is that most of them are polite, respectful, and excited to be here. Treating groups of people as a monolith is such a long tradition in Japan though

japanauthor.bsky.social•7 days ago

Excellent insight

dmzoutis.bsky.social•7 days ago

Ex, in Peace Park = trash cans that are decades old. Crows easily get into them. Authorities have been told repeatedly to replace w/ new ones that places like Sogo in Hiroshima use. Anti-crow. They don't listen. Tourist trash flows into the rivers done mostly by crows. Smoking illegal yet no signs.

powderbum75.bsky.social•7 days ago

One of the main reasons I have stopped using Twitter is not, in fact, because of foul ownership, but because of the "Japan is sick of tourists" zeitgeist that so dominated my timeline.

There are, surely, genuine problems to be discussed. But immature memes and (barely veiled) slurs is not that.

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