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Overtourism and Waste: A Growing Issue in Japan



Topic Overview: 

Japan has become one of the most touristy countries in the world. Since then, overtourism has also led to today’s topic, tourists violating local Japanese etiquette. The issue has recently become more serious, as tourists have started dumping their luggage at the places where they stay or even at airports. Therefore, hotels have to manage and pay the disposal fees themselves, which increases their operational costs. Some hotels report spending thousands of yen every month just to handle abandoned suitcases. In addition, these leftover items create storage problems and inconvenience both the staff and other guests. However, the government does not provide a tourist friendly waste management system, which is also one of the concerns mentioned in the article. A possible solution for both hotels and tourists is to raise awareness and set up suitcase drop off counters, but more work still needs to be done to make this system effective.

My personal view:  

I have personally seen tourists in Japan behave in ways that make local people feel disregarded or uncomfortable. Sometimes they don’t realize their behavior is impolite or inappropriate, but that can happen to anyone. When Japanese people travel abroad, we also become tourists and may fail to notice or follow local manners in other countries. Therefore, the best solution is to keep raising awareness about how things work in Japan, both for visitors and locals. Coincidentally, I recently called the waste management service to throw away a suitcase I no longer use. However, I realized that even as a local, it takes a lot of effort ,  I had to give my address, book a pickup date, and buy a special sticker from a convenience store to attach to the suitcase. It was honestly tiring and frustrating just to throw one item away. I think the Japanese government should make this system easier for everyone, so that both residents and tourists can dispose of things more conveniently.

Why I decided to focus on this issue:


I have personally seen suitcases being thrown away as garbage in Japan. In addition, I have noticed that in areas heavily crowded with tourists, suitcases are sometimes sold at extremely low prices or simply abandoned. These experiences made me realize how serious the problem of luggage disposal has become as tourism increases. Seeing this issue firsthand encouraged me to think more deeply about how over tourism affects daily life in Japan and why better systems are needed to manage waste caused by tourism.



Tourists keep dumping their luggage in Japan, and it’s becoming a problem. (n.d.). https://farandwide.com/s/tourists-keep-dumping-their-luggage-in-japan-and-its-becoming-a-problem


 Fiddler, A. (2025, October 16). Airports and hotels in Japan are “overwhelmed” by tourists’ annoying bag habit. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-15195183/airports-hotels-Japan-overwhelmed-tourists-bags.html



Comments

  1. jodias5 November 2025 at 21:09

    This is an interesting post because it not only describes the problem but explains your views on way it may be happening and you point to possible solutions.

    It looks like you used two sources (which is good) but one of the citations is at the top and the other at the bottom. It's better to put them at the bottom because, if you place it at the top it might look to the reader like what will follow isn't original content.

    Also, your first citation is well formatted and accurate, the one at the bottom is missing parts.

    Lastly, you could do a better job formatting and organizing your posts to make them more attractive and reader friendly.

    ReplyDelete

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