Authorities in Japan are stepping up measures to deter crowds of overseas visitors from taking risks in their quest for the perfect photo, in another attempt to address the negative impact of a record surge in inbound tourism.
Tourism officials in Otaru, a small city in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, deployed security guards this week to prevent people congregating on Funami-za, a steep street and the perfect spot for photos of the port and sea in the distance.
Earlier this month a Chinese woman died when she was struck by a train after walking onto railway tracks in Otaru. Her husband reportedly told police his wife had been trying to photograph a location from the 2015 Chinese film Cities in Love and had not noticed the approaching train.
The deployment of security guards is in response to complaints that groups of visitors are clogging up the narrow street when they stand to take photographs of the area, which was also a location in Love Letter, a 1995 Japanese film that was also a hit in China and South Korea.
The latest crackdown on shoddy behaviour by visitors coincided with figures showing that a record 36.7 million people visited Japan last year, with the government aiming to increase the figure to 60 million by the end of the decade.
“This road is lined with houses and has heavy traffic,” a city official told the Mainichi Shimbun. “Tourists standing on the street or walking side by side often make it impossible for vehicles to pass. The impact on residents has been significant, and this fiscal year has been particularly severe.”
“People are even entering private property without permission to take photos,” Hidetoshi Itagaki, an 80-year-old local resident, told the Kyodo news agency.
Otaru’s popularity has soared beyond pre-pandemic levels. Almost 98,000 foreign tourists spent at least a night in the city in the six months from April last year, the highest number since records were first kept in 1997. The actual number is believed to be even higher, as many tourists stay in nearby Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido, the Mainichi said.
Officials have been encouraging visitors to visit Japan’s regions to take the strain off “must-see” locations such as Kyoto, the country’s ancient capital, and the megalopolises of Tokyo and Osaka.
But the surge in visitors is putting a strain on infrastructure and causing resentment among locals. In Otaru, the problem has come to a head in recent months, despite the introduction last year of multilingual signs asking visitors to respect their surroundings and local residents.
A weak yen and an increase in international flights to Japan have fuelled the surge in inbound tourism, with South Koreans comprising the single biggest group, followed by people from China and Taiwan.
The influx has proved a boon for hotels and shops as tourists spent a record ¥8tn yen ($50.8bn) last year, according to government data. Japan’s seven major convenience store chains said their combined sales had reached a record high in 2024, thanks in part to prodigious consumption of snacks and drinks by foreign tourists.
But overtourism has also led to a rise in complaints about overcrowding, littering, drinking on the street and other nuisance behaviour.
Last year a Chilean Instagram influencer was forced to apologise after filming herself doing pullups on a sacred torii shrine gate in Hokkaido, while a video of a man who appeared to be a foreign tourist kicking one of Nara’s famed deer prompted outrage on social media.
In another high-profile incident, an American man was arrested for using his fingernails to scratch letters representing his family members’ names into a torii at Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo.
Authorities have introduced fees and capped visitor numbers on Mount Fuji and erected a screen to prevent people from congregating at a spot popular for taking photos of the mountain. This week the Japan Tourism Agency released 22 pictograms encouraging visitors to be better behaved. They include signs urging them to travel light to avoid heavy luggage blocking access to trains and buses, and to refrain from queue jumping.
