Maybe I’m too Usian to understand this but the article doesn’t call out tourists from any particular country. So it’s odd to me that China is being called out so much in the comments.
Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards
Submitted 2 weeks ago by Luniio@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
Comments
A_cook_not_a_chef@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
bossito@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
People know… If this news was from somewhere in Europe everyone would be blaming the Brits in the comments. It’s known…
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I doubt it.
Americans and Brits tourists here in Europe do indeed have a certain reputation, but Chinese tourists have such a bad reputation that Brits and Americans are welcomed with open arms.
The biggest problem are the groups though. Any group is going to behave badly, nationality doesn’t matter. And that in combination with how different Chinese culture is in some aspects just has given them a bad reputation worldwide.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
thatradomguy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Seems odd to me as well. I feel like we need proof other than strangers on the Internet just making claims.
scarabic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Strangers making claims on the internet is all this place is. There’s no “proof” needed or available here.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
tourists shitting in the street is a “china bad” dogwhistle
tiredofsametab@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
As the article points out, we're also in an election (voting is today (Sunday Japan time)) so the cynical side of me worders if the timing is coordinated since fear and "foreigners bad" are successfully distracting from actual issues of rising prices and stagnant wages leading to a lower quality of life
Professorozone@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I live in the US and I have no idea what that’s like.
/s
shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Great insight.
tatterdemalion@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I don’t doubt some of this stuff happened, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if some of it is nationalist fear mongering. Just like the whole “tourists are kicking the deer” rumor where no evidence ever surfaced. Some nationalist Japanese really like to stoke the anti-foreigner flames.
But Japan truly does have an over-tourism problem so this could absolutely be justified.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They desperately need more immigration though, don’t they?
Maybe they could say “you can come to the festival, but only if you don’t leave.”
tatterdemalion@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
They do but I don’t know if there is a significant conversion from tourism to immigration. I think most tourists are taking advantage of the weak yen, not trying to live there long term.
kandoh@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
kilgore_trout@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
Every South-West European country needs immigration, and practically they are facilitating it, but it doesn’t seem that the political speech is any different…
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
it does happen unfortunately, not only japan but chinese from china are doing this to taiwan, other asian countries and europe too.
Professorozone@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Tourists who can afford to fly on an airplane and therefore presumably understand how a toilet works are actually defecating in yards? I admit I didn’t read the article but it doesn’t pass my smell test.
shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Lots of narrative building going on in this thread. I’m in another comment chain where the case is being made that Japan has the best maintained and widely available toilets in the world and yet people are still choosing to break into homes to use the bathroom and defecate in the open despite this. Hard to believe anyone can genuinely buy this so one can only assume that the underlying intentions is, rather than having a discussion in good faith, to pit this one one group of people while absolving Japan of any reaponsibility.
Which is their prerogative but it’s important that they acknowledge their bias. Japan is headed towards an alarming demographic collapse with 40% of its population being pensioners by 2046. Tourism is one of the few industries that will keep their economy and social services functional so I do genuinely hope they figure this out, for their sake.
theyoyomaster@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You would be surprised what percentage of the world, even those with access to air travel, aren’t that familiar with a western or Japanese toilet. Now shitting on someone’s yard is a different issue all together but I’ve seen plenty of hotels with signage in the bathroom of how to use the toilet and specifying that you need to be in the shower when taking a shower.
Professorozone@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Talked to a friend that lives in Japan and he was confused about the defecating thing but definitely corroborated the dislike for Chinese tourist groups.
udon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My impression overall here is that most tourists try to behave very well. I see people from my home country offer gentle gestures like carrying an elderly person’s bag up the stairs that they would not do at home.
The problem are the 3 fuckers among 10000 who behave like shit, and the fact that there are so many tourists especially in high season.
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
They do not “behave like shit”, they simply “shit”
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Maybe Japan could just, you know, erect public trash cans like so many other countries.
Visstix@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
To shit in?
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They haven’t since the sarin gas attacks when the gas bombs went off in trash cans.
tiredofsametab@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
Some people think the cost savings of installation, maintenance, and salaries are the reason they''ve not returned
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah. So? Most reactions to terror attacks are very irrational. This is among them.
inzen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
… or tourists could respect the culture of the country they are visiting. Crazy, I know.
kcuf@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I was amazed there weren’t public trash receptacles when I was there (I was only there for a couple days though, maybe I just missed it).
TheBat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You didn’t. Japan doesn’t have public trash cans.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m not sure you solved the problem here?
woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Which part of littering wouldn’t be solved by trash cans?
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
I haven’t gone to a foreign country on vacation in a long time but… why the fuck would anyone behave like this? Even the ‘not my country, I am just a guest’ idea is bullshit. Sure tourists are there to have a fun time and would eat and drink more than they would at home but… shitting on the street? Really?
stoy@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Mainland Chinese tourists are infamous for their lack of manners.
toppy@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
Indians also are famous for pooping and being unhygienic. Recently japan has allowed a lot of indian people to enter the country.
fodor@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Look, the story is full of deceit. If crimes were committed, they would have called the cops, right? Or posted pictures and video. Of course they would have … unless the perpetrators were rich Japanese folk. This is common sense.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
To be fair, it seems to say they were shitting in yards, not the street, so calm down.
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Wouldn’t a bunch of porta potties solve this?
Get_Off_My_WLAN@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
There are public bathrooms at the park. It was packed with tourists and their litter when I went in 2024 though.
As for the streets where people actually live, they shouldn't need to have a bunch of ugly porta-potties occupying the streets in front of their home. It's a place where people have always lived, not a place that exists solely to be a tourist attraction.
I guess I wrongly assumed all tourists would have the common sense to not defacate in someone else's yard.
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
There are public bathrooms at the park. It was packed with tourists and their litter when I went in 2024 though.
Soooo, the festivals are probably put on by the city or area. If the bathrooms at the park were packed, then the city and area should provide more porta potties. It’s kind of simple. The cities probably wanted the tourism, but are now realizing that it might not be worth it? That I get. The pooping thing though, that I don’t get.
PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If the public bathrooms are already packed, and people are finding other places to go, there clearly aren’t enough bathrooms to manage the number of tourists. Temporary extra bathrooms like porta-potties are completely reasonable here. Surely they’re less of an eyesore than shit in a yard or street.
scarabic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Someone shits in your yard and you’re going to set a porta potty out by the curb? No you’re not.
Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The city should
MrFappy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Not with Chinese tourists it would seem.
shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Worth reviewing what type of sanitation services are available. If people are completely ignoring adequate public recepticles and bathrooms then that can be addressed a variety of ways but that seems relatively less likely in my opinion.
udon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You have never been to Japan, have you? If any country in the world has excellent public bathroom infrastructure, it’s Japan. Always clean, generally free, and within 1-2 minutes walking range.
shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The already existing infrastructure may be of good quality but it doesn’t really matter if the capacity isn’t there to meet the volume of people.
In fact, let’s agree that your point is absolutely true. Wouldn’t it then br most likely that people would want to use those facilities and the only reason they may not be is because the wait is too long?
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
I don’t get it. I’ve never been on vacation, and people say that makes me “culturally stunted”, but then I look into visiting places, and see nothing but locals complaining about tourists doing the most horrific shit.
It would check out that imperial cultures think that pissing off locals is a culturally enriching activity, but I’m a better person than that.
traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I mean you could also just be a good tourist. Learn the language, understand the culture, be respectful. It really isn’t hard. Some of the most ignorant people I know are the ones who refuse to travel outside of their own bubble.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m gonna be real here, most of that’s great, but I ain’t learning Japanese to visit Japan, I’m just going to use a translator app and apologize
kandoh@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
The lies nationalists tell are the same all over the world
notsure@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
Some things are meant to be local and communal...just let it be.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It really is just tourists people are talking about whenever right wing lunatics talk about borders.
IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
lol… wtf
FAINTEDKINGS@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The Japanese nation is homogeneous. They are not like the people in Europe or any other country who trash the ground. That’s why I love Japan.
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
It can’t possibly be near cherry festival time? It’s cold as Islamic hell still here in the continental US. Warmer than the worst of it, we hit -26 f one night here, and below freezing over a dozen days. We are still buried in snow, haven’t had more than a few days above freezing since thanksgiving the snow from which never melted.
I know Japan is on the oceans, but they also do get some continental breezes coming over? They can’t possibly be into spring yet? They are quite a bit north anyway. Seems so early, here it’s like may, maybe april with cherry blossoms, not sure like the pnw which maybe is more similar to japan.
arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I really don’t understand how a tourist can think any of this makes sense. Like, would they do this in their country too?
jaschen306@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
China. These are China-nese tourists. They used to do the same shit in Taiwan before the government banned them.
I saw a mom put their kid on the trashcan so he could pee into a trash can. This was an indoor mall.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
It’s a frequent issue in Hong Kong too where people from the mainland will just shit right in the street and walk away like its no big deal.
lechekaflan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Most tourists are usually mindful of the country they’re visiting, but then most Mainland Chinese are former farm peasants who suddenly got wealthy for some reason and live in big cities, so able to even travel abroad, but unfortunately have little to no understanding of etiquette and how to properly conduct themselves elsewhere.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
BS from a sinophobe
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Absolutely
Buelldozer@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Am also in Wyoming and can confirm.
tpyo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I had the absolute fortune to make my way through there at the end of last year. It was so bizarre to me that for the most part people are left alone to follow the rules with no oversight
And for the most part I saw everyone behaving well and not doing anything stupid; except the group of people trying to take pictures of a bison who was clearly unhappy about how close they were getting. He was grazing and would walk away a couple steps and they would follow. The boi was swishing his tail and showing what I saw were “leave me the fuck alone” signs and I had to at least shout to the people to leave him alone and they were fucking idiots. I was HOPING that they got charged and had some sense knocked into them
My partner and I had had discussions previously about what we’d do if something like that was about to happen and the kiddo in the car. If it’s just us adults then we’ll stay and watch the carnage but we’ll take off if they’re with us
Bloomcole@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Why would they come to the shithole US?
chunes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They played too many JRPGs and got the wrong idea
Apytele@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
right like this is a whole new level of unhinged
Jarix@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They do
PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There is no reasonable explanation here except inadequate availability of public restrooms for the amount of tourists.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
That’s… not the problem. And even if it was, the solution is absolutely not “I guess I’ll shit in that guy’s yard”. Go into a hotel lobby or coffee shop or bar or whatever, ask for the restroom (use your phone as a translator if you need to, because that’s a thing now), and do it there.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
trashy chinese tourists, i have heard over the years the ones from china are especially bad, and very feral.