Travellers are descending on Japan in record numbers, eager to take advantage of a weak yen, but parts of the famously polite country are now grappling with the hallmarks of overtourism - crowded public transport, litter, inflated prices, and noise pollution.
It is midmorning in Tokyo and the mercury is approaching 36 degrees, but the summer heat has done little to deter the flood of tourists streaming towards the ancient Sensoji Temple from the train station in the city’s Asakusa district.
But the boom is proving a double-edged sword – embraced by the businesses and tourism industries reliant on cash-splashing visitors, while challenging the patience of locals forced to grapple with crowded public transport, litter, inflated prices, and noise pollution, especially around sacred and environmentally delicate sites.
Rickshaw driver Sora Suzuki, 24, sets on in a sprint around the streets of Tokyo’s Asakusa district. Business is “super busy”, he says.For Sora Suzuki, a 24-year-old rickshaw driver, the tourism boom has quite literally run him off his feet. He ferries visitors around the streets of Asakusa, strapping them into a chariot-like cart and setting of at a cracking pace. He completes as many as 10 trips a day, the average 30-minute ride costing 10,000 yen for two people.
Within days, holes had been poked in the mesh and last month officials replaced it with a sturdier barrier. “We have a lot of Maiko and Geiko passing by in front of the restaurant, so we see them being chased all the time,” says Yasuko Terashima, a worker at a Kaiseki restaurant in Gion district.
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