Comments by "PeterC" (@peterc4082) on "The Japan Reporter" channel.

  1. 100%. But the fact is that Japan's position is weakening. They can't appear racist. They can't for example stop more and more affluent Indians, Chinese and Africans from entering despite perceived racism, as they will need these places in the 21st century to survive. We in the EU are becoming weaker economically and the US is also fading as the global hegemon. Japan will rely on India, China, South America and even Africa for a source of raw materials and exports and even imports, including food. They can't block tourism because it would be bad for their soft power and it's also a good source of revenue, directly and indirectly. Every foolish tourist who visits Japan may later decide to be more likely to buy Japanese goods or culture.
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  2.  @jonasw3945 Two things. First they don't need visa because Japanese government wants such tourists there, they could impose visa requirements. For example there is a ban on North Koreans entering Japan. Secondly, even if you don't need a visa, the immigration officer could refuse you entry. That happens. There is no right to enter another country. America is especially nasty for people to enter, as tourists. But other countries can also block people. If Japan thinks there is too much tourism, they can introduce visas, and yet they haven't because likely it's 1. Good business. The Yen is weak and people bring in foreign exchange. 2. It's good for soft power reasons. They export goodwill and these people either return or recommend Japan to others or buy Japanese products.
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  3.  @MemesAndLs But they were disruptive. You're just making excuses about the sort of disruption they caused. And which tourists are loud and chaotic? It's usually large numbers of people i.e. tours. Individuals, couples and families are not going to be chaotic and loud. OK young children may be loud, but it's ridiculous to criticise small kids. It's large tour groups which are an issue. Also don't make Japanese into some sort of angels here, they are also obnoxious. People need to stop this Japan weeb worship.
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  4. LOL, made to feel welcome. In every country, outside of a war zone or maybe North Korea, you'll be made to feel welcome. I've never been to a country I've never been welcomed in. People in hotels, restaurants, museums, shops etc smile and are polite. Hosts are polite. People are friendly etc. Would you be impolite to a tourist if you ran a B&B? or worked in the hospitality industry? And most people are happy when foreigners come to SPEND THEIR MONEY. It means jobs. And Japan is becoming more and more poor as compared to the 80s and 90s.
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  5.  @HeyJuuu  He's not saying that at all. You are.
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  6. Some - all of them, and they still are. All tourists are annoying. But if you want foreign exchange and soft power, you bring in tourists. The people who complain are basically the people who don't travel. They have no idea how expensive and how straining it is to travel far and then to have several days to get in as much as possible before flying home and returning to work.
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  7.  @MemesAndLs For the racist (Japanese/European/American/Korean/etc) it's not even about people being loud, it's just seeing other race people in their sacred Kyoto or whatever other sacred place relevant people have. Well them make it like Mecca and shut it down for non Shinto/Buddhists.
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  8.  @viperxgamez311 Spot on. And let's face it, tourists occupy what - less than 1% of Japan. The tourist hot spots. And who designates tourist attractions. The Japanese government, local, national and business. Japan advertises tourism to other countries because they want tourism. And Japanese get treated in a special way, as though their excrement doesn't smell. If Japanese people don't want tourists, they can force their government to stop entry for foreigners. We'll happily not go. Other countries will take up the foreign revenue and soft power. Some Japanese want their cake and to eat it too. They gutted Western factories in the 80s and 90s with their cheaper labour, now as Korea/China gut theirs they have to get used to a service economy. They should either obey their government or change it and close their country down. But they can't have it both ways.
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  9. There are 3 million tourists to Japan every month. What percentage of the 3 mil were 'disrespectful'? And anyone with education knows that tourists don't know the nuance of local etiquette.
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  10.  @TheShahkulu  The Tokyos are overcrowded but the country side is empty
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  11. Two things. The ones who travel are not the ones who complain. Secondly some people are hypocrites. But I agree.
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  12. What makes you so special? You're probably no different.
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  13.  @oki148  Cheap for Americans, dude. The USD is strong to other currencies too.
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  14. This is ignored because Japanese are not white to criticise their racism is seen as racist. This will change though. I think PLA will not be so politically correct when they come visit. Let's hope not but Japan should become a little more humble.
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  15.  @erenyeagerist7681  They behaved this way. It depends on what you find distasteful. If you find people making funny gestures, crowding places, video taping and photographing everything and being nosy and in the way of foreigners then yes Japanese were no better. And let's face it foreign visitors to Japan are well behaved. Out of the millions of people who visit Kyoto every year, there was 1 case of a cigarette being flung at a geisha. You need to learn basic stats to realise how much of a nothing this is. So how many Western women fell pray to Japanese weirdos with Japanese police doing nothing about it? Jealous? Maybe not jealous but a little upset that an Axis power was rebuilt by the Americans while Axis victims were left to rot? Japan was successful for 2 reasons. America needed a successful Japan and gave it protection and 2. The West opened its market to Japanese products and had to close own factories instead. Now the West went further and is collapsing. It opened its markets and closed its own factories to China and now soon the West will be completely lost. There is ZERO jealousy here. There is however an observation that US rebuilt certain countries and those people forgot how lucky they are, mainly Germans and Japanese.
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  16. Japanese tourists did this too. My cousin in Paris would get hounded by Japanese tourists to buy Chanel etc products for them because Paris stores had a limit for Japanese tourists.
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  17. Yes there is a way. You can charge a $1000 entry VISA fee payable per person. Or make it $10,000 per person. That way only rich Americans will visit. Then Japan will have the creme de la creme of the society visit them.
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  18.  @Saroku1000  Tourists pay money for that. The host is getting paid for this. If you invite a friend over, sure, they can wash dishes. But to ask a tired, weary traveler who comes from a poorer country, which buys your products (soon won't because will buy Chinese only) and who saved to go on a once in a lifetime trip, and had to sit for 18 hours on a plane and now he gets poor treatment from locals - that is shameful. I think any person with basic humanity will see that as repulsive. Tourists deserve some leeway. Japan tourists are also given leeway in EU and elsewhere.
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  19. If Japan makes money from tourists - they need to put more bins in tourist places. It's easy. The rest of the world has been doing that for ages. Japan is highly educated. They can ask their friends in top EU universities how it's done.
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  20.  @xjp1998  Good for you. But you can't ever be fully Japanese.
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  21.  @raffaelez9665  Not really sure why people should bend over backwards. At heart this assumes Japanese are easily offended and need to be treated with kid gloves. Do you tell people to be the same when they travel to any other country, even less 'cool' ones?
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  22.  @Frivals  Then there will be protests from Japan.
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  23. Dude, the Japanese government has been promoting Japan for decades. Why do you think people come to Japan? Because it is promoted via marketing. Even the exports of anime and manga help it. All of this generates SOFT POWER for Japan and money. What is Japan going to export? And Japan needs all the help she can get because China is on the rise and China is going to be the biggest super power in the world. And they don't like the Japanese for WW2. Japan needs to ask who her friends are. If she wants to spit on our tourists, it's not good for her future. We will remember.
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  24.  @felicaamiko Look at Nanking, Manilla, Singapore, Korea etc. A good movie to watch, Bridge over the RIver Kwai.
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  25. I feel for you bud. I also feel like they don't want us to visit there.
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  26.  @winterlantern5695  I'm Western. I don't like weebs and I don't like those Japanese who portray Japan as some heaven. It's not. I have Japanese friends, some are very close, even closer than local friends. And Japan is not the heaven on earth it is made out to be, that's coming from Japanese people and said to someone who was a bit of weeb himself.
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  27.  @ivanteo1973  No I won't behave better than I already behave. I won't behave better than Japanese abroad. I'm sorry. I don't need to go there, the world is huge.
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  28.  @TheShahkulu  They are even more overcrowded. Or maybe the're just used to Japanese faces, seeing a few others raises their blood pressure. I don't know. :)
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  29.  @kathleencove  There is truth to that. It's fine if everyone is charged a higher price because the place is a TOURIST TRAP. It's not fine if the same item costs more for a tourist than for a local in the same shop or restaurant. It's not good to cheat travelers from afar. It happens in many countries but it's bad. It's a grey area. It's also sometimes illegal, eg in the EU it's illegal to do that. Some countries do have a haggling culture and some are developing still. Japan is 1st world, G7, OESCE country. It needs to be more like rich countries than poorer countries.
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  30.  @ragsdale710  My Parisian cousin would also be annoyed. Japan tourists hounded him outside boutique shops to buy limited good for him because there were limits on how many items per tourist were sold. That was in the late 90s when Japanese had more Yen to travel. Japanese people should blame their own government. This is what I hate. People hating on innocent tourists who come because they buy the hype, hype which Japanese themselves create. Japan can stop entry for tourists tomorrow. They can allow only business or family only visits and charge $1000 per visa for tourism. Or make it $10,000 per visa. Then the riff raff won't visit Japan. And then many places will close but at least no smelly foreigners, right? :)
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  31. Tourist spots are less than 1% of Japan surface area. It's not hard to install more trash cans there. And if they can't cope with that, then stop issuing tourist visas.
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  32. There are 3 million tourists to Japan PER MONTH. This guy was one guy who entered a work site, shouted a bit, pulled some nasty pranks. It wasn't that serious. I know they don't teach maths and logic at school, but try to imagine the scenario where out of 3 million people per month maybe 2-3 actually cause a serious nuisance. Now ask how much goodwill and money tourism to Japan generates? Because Japan is on her way out. US and Japan are on their way out. China is rising and China will be the only player in the Pacific and Japan will have to ask whether she wants to make more enemies of foreigners or wants to show herself to be a modern country, like those of the EU.
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  33.  @brandonnguyen9680 Are you a weeb?
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  34.  @valentindimitrov8275  They can charge for the visas. Visa free entry but a payment is required. Actually no such thing as visa free, it's all visa on arrival. Charge $10,000 per person as visa fees to go to conservation of Japan traditions which are in danger from the presence of unwashed foreigners. Easy.
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  35.  @TriddyYT  Japan is famous. Japan MADE herself famous. Japanese always wanted to be in the leading jet set. If you ever see any representation of the world, it's US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, China, Italy, maybe Russia. Rest of us don't matter. We are backwaters. Japan wants to be in the big leagues they have to be international. If you go to Paris or London or NYC you will see that people are mixed and can be loud and sometimes rude. Japan wants to be like that. Old Samurai days are over. So either Japan is insular like say some backwater country or it allows tourists. Japanese can't have it both ways. A few drunk people are not such a big issue.
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  36.  @kennedysan1045  I think this is not really the case. These videos and comments draw on weebs. They defend Japan vehemently. This isn't a general sample of the world's population. Japan has a bad rep among many people too, I know people who think Japan has a fetish for children and adults exploit schoolgirls. Not everyone worships Japan. But here many weebs come and they all worship Japan. Some may even be racist.
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  37. What is fair is to give pensioner discounts for local pensioners. But one should not charge more for the same service rendered. Tourists need to stop visiting Japan. Japanese people don't want tourists there so let's respect them and visit countries which want you to come.
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  38.  @lacucaracha111111  Entrance exams for tourists? Are you serious? Just charge $10,000 per visa. To get the visa you pay with MC or Visa (pun intended) and you're OK to go to Japan. The money can be shared with residents of geisha districts to help them get over the deluge of foreigners. Those foreigners are no doubt scary to some Japanese folks.
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  39. How about stopping tourism. That would be easier.
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  40.  @muralk3153  It's the Japanese who are wealthy. Japan is No 3 most rich country in the world with very high standards of living. Most tourists save for a long time to come. But to come you have to be reasonably wealthy too. Paupers don't go to Japan for a holiday. So reasonably rich people come, people with enough disposable income to buy tickets, book hotels, spend money on food, transport, car hire, etc.
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  41.  @hannesRSA  A Saffer? Dude, Japan has a problem and needs money. This is not about undocumented migrants but about paying tourists who offend Japanese sensibilities.
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  42.  @NoctLightCloud  Because people don't change behaviour suddenly. That's the realistic and pragmatic view. If you want to WELCOME people in and say FEEL AT HOME, that's what people understand, because that's how WE welcome tourists, we say feel at home, those are not empty words. So it's rational to accept that most visitors will behave as they do at home, or a little more subdued. It's irrational to be angry at other people who come from other cultures. It's rational to vote for a different government if you think your government is inviting too many visitors. Some people here expect tourists to walk on eggshells in Japan. Well that's unrealistic and unwelcoming.
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  43.  @rpoutine3271  You're kidding. In Paris they would hound people to get them to buy stuff from LV for them.
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  44.  @elenik845 No. That's not true. If you look at visa agreements around the world you will see that reciprocity does not exist much of the time. For example visitors from the UK, Japan or Germany enjoy visa free travel to South Africa but South Africans cannot get visa free entry into the UK, Japan or Germany, and need expensive visas and interviews. Secondly even within the EU it's not the case that a country must ALLOW ALL EU countries to be on the same visa terms. For example the US gives visa waiver to some EU countries but not other (usually poorer) EU countries. A country like Poland only received US visa waiver a couple years ago, but had been in the EU and the free movement zone of the EU since 2004. Same for Canada. So I disagree. But do the research.
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  45.  @3ndeavor  Guess what, many countries have seen fluctuations in their currencies. SO I know very well what it feels like. The only country which has a stable currency is America because America runs the world (at this stage) and USD is the 'reserve currency' and people have agreed to that. Everyone else's currency fluctuates. It's pathetic of Japanese people to be so jealous that some foreigners can now afford to come and spend their money there. And I'm sorry why do you say HOME? People are not coming into their homes, they're visiting public sites which are NOT OWNED by Japanese people but by the Japanese state and the state has given visas to these tourists and in fact spends millions on promoting Japan.
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  46. Americans are by the large tolerant people.
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  47.  @Yamato-tp2kf  I'm a professional (MD) and a scientist with publications. I don't do any such stunts. But I also can read stats, and when 3 million people visit a country every month, it's iRRATIONAL to draw a conclusion based on single outlier cases. Whats 1 out of 3 000 000 people? Tourists sometimes do bad things. I know of cases of backpackers murdering each other, these were either Americans or Australians but not in Japan. NOW THAT'S A CRIME. If you speak to educated Japanese people they will not be hating on tourists. It's usually uneducated people who have never traveled who complain and hate monger tabloid media organisations.
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  48.  @Kaarver  You're speaking of idealised situations but it's difficult to change behaviour. I work as an MD. I can assure you that it's very difficult to change how people behave, even in terms of very important issues. A tourist is unlikely to change behaviour beyond the most obvious things. Tourists are short time visitors. They save money, they go on their dream vacation to Japan and they leave to never return. If Japan wants to promote Japan to only wealthy people who may be more cultured or maybe not, maybe Japan needs to charge for tourist visas. A visa is required for all visitors, even if visa free, you are issued a visa at the airport. Maybe Japan needs to charge for such a visa, you pay when purchasing your ticket or as a mere formality, using your credit card, and passport number and voila you're now allowed entry. $1000 visa per person per visit. If that still does not work, charge $10,000. Easy peasy. But changing behaviour is very hard. Japan needs to put more bins where tourists frequent and maybe get used to some diversity. After all European classical music is played in Japan but it's not Japanese. That was widely accepted. That's my take as someone who deals with a diverse group of patients on a daily basis.
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  49.  @NoctLightCloud  Thanks for sharing that. Why did it bother you that some guy shouted that. He was excited to be there. Such a thing would NEVER bother me. Unless he was spitting in my face when shouting or shouting in my ear, I wouldn't care. Note that I also would not shout this way, I keep a low profile but I also realise other people are a little different and emotionally driven by different things. Destinations aren't always as pictured in promotional materials. That's just the reality of life. Travel is relatively cheap these days and people travel. Why do we need to tolerate each other? Well there is always something you may be doing which someone else finds annoying. You never know if you're behaving well or if others are just too polite to say anything. As for that guy who shouted it would be wrong to generalise that all tourists shout because from your story it seems that only one person was shouting and you and his daughter weren''t. And if he shouted a few times but was a quite fellow for the rest of his stay, would he be a bad or a good tourist? I think people need to give each other some leeway and tolerance. Have a good day.
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  50.  @Saroku1000  Just to add, while you will never be fully Japanese, a Japanese person can be fully European in any EU country. Maybe in the countryside people will give them looks but in bigger towns/cities, an Asian looking person will be accepted as one of our own. That's even among right wingers. As long as people see the immigrant is trying to assimilate to a reasonable degree, nobody will mind. And that reasonable degree may just be, be tolerant of local practices. I think we just have to realise that Japanese are not us, Europeans. We can't hold them to our standard. I would be in favour of $100K visas for tourists to Japan as well. Let's keep her pure and Japanese only. Have a good day.
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