Getting by on the Generosity of Strangers in Japan

https://theworld.org/stories/2025/06/20/out-of-eden-walk-getting-by-on-the-generosity-of-strangers

by ilamont • 1 year ago

85 49 1 year ago

One consequence of "Japanese hospitality" being widely known is that there are now swathes of tourists visiting with the expectation of getting their own "magical experience".

Some people living in places that have become tourist areas are putting up signs announcing their home toilets are not for public use. Because apparently some tourists have said things like "When I needed to use the bathroom and there was nowhere else around, I knocked on a random person's door and they were kind enough to let me use it!" So now a non-zero number of people go there with the expectation that they can (and possibly should) do the same.

Tourists used to be a novelty to Japanese. Now with over 40 million projected for this year, a massive rise from about 6 million in 2012, a large number of them taking extended vacations (in contrast to Euros who might hop a border for a weekend and boost tourist counts quickly), people are getting quickly burnt out with the entitlement many of them exhibit. To tourists, it's a magical, unique vacation and they must have the Ghibli experience someone else posted about. To locals, countless people are harassing you everyday demanding unreasonable things.

Aeolun4• 1 year ago

Also, everything has become absurdly expensive for the locals. During covid you could often find a hotel for 10,000 yen.

forgotoldacc3• 1 year ago

Pre-covid/covid times were great with 8000 yen business hotels in Tokyo. Capsule hotels were meant for salarymen and available for sub-3000. Now they're also part of the country-sized amusement park experience. Capsule hotels now easily exceed 10000 yen and business hotels can be over 30000 (I've seen 45000 for shabby places that would've been half empty pre-covid).

Wages are also not moving and locals are becoming second class citizens in their own country and rapidly. Add it to the entitlement everyone has and the "hospitality" that used to be found everywhere is now rapidly and noticeably going away. People don't know just how different it was before the tourism boom.

GuB-422• 1 year ago

Also note that the article is about a guesthouse. It is a business and you pay for the service. It is not about getting inside random people homes because whoever is living there is too polite to kick you out.

The old lady in the article is so kind and polite because she respects you as a customer, takes pride in her job, and wants you to feel at ease. Service tradition really is something there. But don't get things wrong, it is still a business relationship.

srvmshr• 1 year ago

Some people living in places that have become tourist areas are putting up signs announcing their home toilets are not for public use.

I read that on r/Tokyo Reddit as well a while back. Quite shocking. It was some person complaining living near a large public park (possibly Shinjuku or Inokashira) about his personal premises being violated because toilet queues were quite long & people kept knocking at their door. Not sure if we both are referring to the same incident?

[For reference to others, there are enough portable toilets in these public parks to deal with tourist surge, but obviously no arrangement can handle 25000+ visitors everyday without having queues]

More ridiculous stories have popped up once in a while in japan tourist subreddits. This sakura blossom season, a British tourist couple were seeking legal recourse to avoid detention and move back to their home country ASAP after running over an elderly woman with the rental car. Some people probably don't take consequences in a tourist destination seriously.

MichaelZuo5• 1 year ago

The latter case sounds more like mental derangement under stress.

I really doubt even lower ranking actual diplomats could reasonably expect to get away with running over an elderly Japanese grandma in Japan.

Nearly all the smaller countries would waive even up to a minister-counsellor’s immunity in that scenario.

corimaith• 1 year ago

The usual this is why we can't have nice things. Hospitality only thrives when it is not abused as an expectation rather than a privilege.

anal_reactor• 1 year ago

The more I interact with people the less I think of an average person. Case in point - my neighborhood has a huge trash problem. People just dump it on the street. Why some communities consider that normal behavior is beyond me.

adrianN• 1 year ago

Tourism reliably destroys places. Southern Italy is another example where the sheer masses of tourists have completely ruined a whole area.

matwood• 1 year ago

Italy is a lot like most places in the EU where tourists visit a few Instagram sites and nothing else. I think it’s incorrect to say it’s ruining southern Italy when the reality is it’s a few areas.

I was just at the Louvre where the wing with the Mona Lisa was overrun - the busiest I’ve ever seen it. The other wings were almost ghost towns.

I understand that when people travel they want to see the highlights, but I wish they would also explore a bit.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/surging-travel-europe-spik...

mslansn2• 1 year ago

Southern Italy has nothing else to offer, so it's either that or live off the rest of the country. (Yes, I know many would be happy to just do that)

dfxm12• 1 year ago

tourists visiting with the expectation of getting their own "magical experience".

Having unrealistic expectations go unfulfilled sounds like what a lot of Japanese tourists feel about Paris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome

I also think tourists, as a class, tend to be more entitled than others. They usually have money and also having spent money, they expect hospitality on their terms (realistically or not).

FWIW, I had a recent trip to Japan before news of issues with tourists, and I would describe my experience as "magical", not because of generosity of strangers though. None was needed. Naoshima in particular is magical on its own.

astura• 1 year ago

OMG, This reminds me of the ridiculous "50 years of travel tips" that showed up on HN a few months back

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43066720

Including gems such as:

-have your Uber driver take you to his mother's house so she'll cook for you

-crash a wedding, you'll be the "celebrity guest"

rsynnott• 1 year ago

Even if you never go to McDonalds at home, visit the McDonalds on your travels.

Eh?

If you detect slightly more people moving in one direction over another, follow them. If you keep following this “gradient” of human movement, you will eventually land on something interesting—a market, a parade, a birthday party, an outdoor dance, a festival.

Or, y'know, a train station or something.

I'm slightly unsure whether this is parody or not.

deepsun• 1 year ago

Don't forget that "tourists" also get stereotyped. There are respecting, caring and careful tourists, who don't try to overuse the hospitality.

ronsor• 1 year ago

So now a non-zero number of people go there with the expectation that they can (and possibly should) do the same.

Is this actually common now?

gwd• 1 year ago

I feel like every word in the title is deceptive: Someone you're renting a room from is not a "stranger", nor is their renting it to you "generosity", nor are you simply "getting by". "Enjoying the hospitality of small guesthouses and private hosts" would be much more accurate.

danielscrubs2• 1 year ago

Im wondering if tourism isnt a net negative? The tourism industry thrives which means people move to that industry, then that industry becomes so big that politicians say the country can’t survive without it, then the culture vanishes . See the coffee shops in Shibuya with majority tourists, their manner is completely different.

Getting by on the Generosity of Strangers in Japan

Related Stories