Influencers and litterers mar boom in tourism

At the height of the pandemic, the restaurateurs and shopkeepers of Tsukiji market in Tokyo must have dreamed of days like these. Columns of visitors shuffle along the narrow streets, pausing to inspect hand-forged kitchen knives and tsukemono pickles, and to sip gratis samples of green tea. Restaurants tempt the crowd with sticks of grilled wagyu and boiled crab legs.

- Justin McCurry 

But signs in English implore Tsukiji's multinational clientele not to eat outside storefronts or leave litter behind. Here, as in many other popular destinations around the world, booming tourism is a double-edged sword.

A year after Japan lifted Covid travel restrictions, foreign visitors are back in force, drawn by a weak yen, worldbeating cuisine and the promise of a holiday of a lifetime in a country once considered a tourism backwater.

"Everything is cheap, the service is incredible, and the food is the best you're going to have, and at a fraction of the price you'd pay in America," said Tommy Buchheit, an American visiting Japan for the first time.