Picture prefect: Japanese city deploys guards to control unruly tourists seeking perfect shot
Picture prefect: Japanese city deploys guards to control unruly tourists seeking perfect shot
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Overseas tourists are blocking roads or walking onto railway tracks in Otaru to capture its views, stoking local resentment and complaints of overtourism. Authorities in Japan are stepping up measures to deter crowds of overseas visitors from taking risks in their quest for the perfect photo, in another attempt to address the negative impact of a record surge in inbound tourism.
Tourism officials in Otaru, a small city in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, deployed security guards this week to prevent people congregating on Funami-za, a steep street and the perfect spot for photos of the port and sea in the distance. Earlier this month a Chinese woman died when she was struck by a train after walking onto railway tracks in Otaru. Her husband reportedly told police his wife had been trying to photograph a location from the 2015 Chinese film Cities in Love and had not noticed the approaching train.
The deployment of security guards is in response to complaints that groups of visitors are clogging up the narrow street when they stand to take photographs of the area, which was also a location in Love Letter, a 1995 Japanese film that was also a hit in China and South Korea.
The latest crackdown on shoddy behaviour by visitors coincided with figures showing that a record 36.7 million people visited Japan last year, with the government aiming to increase the figure to 60 million by the end of the decade. “This road is lined with houses and has heavy traffic,” a city official told the Mainichi Shimbun. “Tourists standing on the street or walking side by side often make it impossible for vehicles to pass. The impact on residents has been significant, and this fiscal year has been particularly severe.”.
