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Oh, no, quite the opposite. Most people don't like the tourists and if anything it is causing the in/out distinction to harden. My point is more that the "authenticity" people seek is 1) denied to them a priori, as you point out, because of their outsider status, but 2) now even worse, you are sold a fake experience by the tourist industry which is optimizing to take your dollars. So many of these retreats popping up where rich western chicks get to dress up in kimono in the mountains and get in touch with their inner zen practising the tea ceremony, for example. People are increasingly experiencing a parody of Japan.
This is tourists I'm talking about. People who live here can experience the "authentic Japan". The authentic Japan is low salaries, persistent inflation, long work days, miserable coworkers, crowded trains, annoying tourists, inefficient work practices, shrinkflation, bugs, humidity, high taxes, and some other things that can occasionally be nice.
And what is it with "couples visiting"? I can't throw a rock out of my window without hitting some backpacking western couple on their way to get gouged at an awful, overpriced, tourist trap izakaya.
Cant explain or account for it either...
Seems harmless... Nice of them to get to role play some long-lost fantasy
The decline of western civilisation.
China won the trade war.
USA is responding with war crimes.
Do not mention the War and global US hegemony that strangles any nation that dares to seek self determination!
Beautiful and comprehensive, thank you very much!
Some remarks:
This is believable... Whenever Japan featured in econ/history for me, it was the postwar growth miracle and then in monetary policy, the QE experiments
Def. My understanding (from the 3-5 couples I know who've visited recently) is that it's extremely hard to get into Japanese society... Even if you'd learn Japanese and customs and live there forever, you're living a separate life. Are you saying this is opening up, Japanese becoming more welcoming/open?