Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, long a popular destination for tourists, is closing off some private-property alleys in its famous geisha district because of complaints about misbehaving visitors.
Tourists crowd the narrow, quaint streets of Gion District, often following tour guides who show people around and lecture for long hours, Isokazu Ota, the area’s representative secretary to the city’s South Side District Council, said on Friday.
“We are going to put up signs in April that tell tourists to stay out of our private streets,” he said.
Photo: Kyodo News via AP
“We don’t want to do this, but we’re desperate,” he added.
A sign is to say in Japanese and English that “this is a private road, so you are not allowed to drive through it,” although the keep-out warning is aimed mainly at pedestrians, not vehicles.
It would also warn of a ￥10,000 (US$68) fine.
The ban covers just several blocks of Gion. The district’s public streets would remain open to tourists, so the area and the rest of Kyoto would still be teeming with visitors, from Japan and around the world.
Gion’s outrage highlights brewing resentment at what many people feel is “over-tourism,” even though the Japanese economy depends more than ever on tourism revenue to sustain growth.
The district of winding alleyways — known for picturesque teahouses, where geisha and their maiko apprentices, wearing fancy kimono and hair ornaments, perform in dance and music — is regularly targeted by smartphone-wielding visitors, some of whom ignore signs requesting that they keep their distance and refrain from touching the women’s expensive kimonos.
There have also been complaints about people trespassing on private property.
Complaints about overzealous tourists began bubbling years ago, although the discontent cooled when the COVID-19 pandemic brought a lull in tourism. Now, visitors are back with a frenzy. In December last year, the council urged the city’s government to take action against unruly tourists, complaining that their neighborhood was “not a theme park.”
Ota said that some visitors behave like amateur paparazzi when they spot a geisha walking along narrow streets, some of which are just 2m wide.
The number of foreign visitors soared 79.5 percent in January from a year earlier to about 2.69 million, reaching levels seen in the same month in 2019.
The largest number of travelers came from South Korea, followed by those from Taiwan and China, Kyodo News said.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS