{"id":43293,"date":"2026-04-10T15:36:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=43293"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:36:39","slug":"cherry-blossoms-and-mount-fuji-draw-tourists-to-japanese-town-the-locals-are-not-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=43293","title":{"rendered":"Cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji draw tourists to Japanese town. The locals are not happy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The trouble started with a beautiful photo.<\/p>\n

Social media was soon awash with the lovely view of Japan\u2019s snow-capped Mount Fuji<\/span> looming over a red pagoda and the short-lived cherry blossoms that herald the approach of spring.<\/div>\n

Tourists wanting a similar shot started to pack this peaceful town at the foot of the mountain. The complaints were not far behind: chronic traffic jams; piles of litter; ill-mannered foreigners knocking on doors of private homes to borrow toilets; tourists relieving themselves in front gardens.<\/p>\n

It got so bad that officials in Fujiyoshida announced in February that they were cancelling this year\u2019s cherry blossom festival, which started a decade ago as a way to promote tourism.<\/p>\n

What locals are calling \u201ctourism pollution\u201d has illuminated a broader problem for Japan: as the country\u2019s economic malaise deepens, officials are eager for the economic boost in increased tourism<\/span>, even as local communities find themselves entirely unprepared for what a small army of foreign visitors means for their communities.<\/div>\n
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\"Visitors<\/div>
Visitors climb stairs to view the cherry blossom trees with Mount Fuji in the background at Arakurayama Sengen Park in Fujiyoshida, Japan. Photo: AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis area is primarily an ordinary residential neighbourhood, where balancing [tourism] with the safety of people\u2019s living environment has become difficult,\u201d says Masatoshi Hada, manager of the Fujiyoshida economics and environment department. \u201cWe decided not to promote a festival that would invite more visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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The trouble started with a beautiful photo. Social media was soon awash with the lovely view of Japan\u2019s snow-capped Mount Fuji looming over a red…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[19917,10471,2672,6256,1231,1884,2037,182,5593,981],"class_list":["post-43293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-blossoms","tag-cherry","tag-draw","tag-fuji","tag-happy","tag-japanese","tag-locals","tag-mount","tag-tourists","tag-town","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}