Japan hires security guards for major site due to out of control tourists 

With implicit 36 cardinal visitors past year, tourism successful Japan is booming, but it’s is coming astatine a outgo for locals, arsenic visitors origin chaos successful once-peaceful spots.

Funami-zaka is simply a steep slope successful the harbour metropolis of Otaru successful Northern Japan.

It’s famed for being featured successful the 1995 Japanese film, Love Letter, and for it’s stunning views crossed the sea.

But it’s present go truthful crowded that metropolis officials person been forced to prosecute information guards to negociate the chaos.

‘The roadworthy is lined with houses and has dense traffic. Tourists lasting connected the thoroughfare oregon walking broadside by broadside often makes it intolerable for vehicles to pass,’ said metropolis official, Mainichi Shimbun.

‘The interaction connected residents has been significant.’

To code the ongoing issue, authorities created multilingual posters to pass tourists against assorted acts of misconduct, including obstructing traffic, taking photos connected the roads, trespassing, littering and stopping connected railroad tracks.

And now, information guards person been deployed to show the area. Working regular betwixt 10am to 4pm, the guards volition pass tourists against disruptive behaviour.

While metropolis officials confirmed the determination was rare, the guards volition enactment determination until March to negociate the situation.

The information measurement comes aft a 61-year-old tourer was killed successful Otaru erstwhile she was struck and killed by a bid aft stepping connected the tracks portion reportedly taking photographs.

According to the South China Morning Post, the tourer stood connected the tracks for a photograph accidental and did not announcement the train.

Major cities, including Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, person been deed the hardest.

Last year, a video emerged of hordes of radical exploring the historical Sannenzaka thoroughfare successful Kyoto’s Higashiyama district, with section authorities attempting to power the pedestrian traffic.

In April past year, Kyoto banned tourists from immoderate areas of its Gion district, celebrated for its geishas and maikos, aft residents complained astir overcrowding and harassment of the geishas.  

The country is present unfastened lone to moving geishas, their clients, and residents. 

It follows a twelvemonth of rising concerns implicit wide tourism, particularly crossed Europe, with galore fashionable destinations overwhelmed by crowds.

Overtourism is becoming a wide occupation successful Japan. In 2024, the state welcomed astir 36.87 cardinal overseas visitors, surpassing the erstwhile grounds of astir 32 cardinal successful 2019.

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