Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, long a popular destination for tourists, is closing off some private-property alleys in its famous geisha district because of complaints about misbehaving visitors.
Tourists crowd the narrow, quaint streets of Gion District, often following tour guides who show people around and lecture for long hours, Isokazu Ota, the area’s representative secretary to the city’s South Side District Council, said on Friday.
“We are going to put up signs in April that tell tourists to stay out of our private streets,” he said.
Photo: Kyodo News via AP
“We don’t want to do this, but we’re desperate,” he added.
A sign is to say in Japanese and English that “this is a private road, so you are not allowed to drive through it,” although the keep-out warning is aimed mainly at pedestrians, not vehicles.
It would also warn of a ￥10,000 (US$68) fine.
The ban covers just several blocks of Gion. The district’s public streets would remain open to tourists, so the area and the rest of Kyoto would still be teeming with visitors, from Japan and around the world.
Gion’s outrage highlights brewing resentment at what many people feel is “over-tourism,” even though the Japanese economy depends more than ever on tourism revenue to sustain growth.
The district of winding alleyways — known for picturesque teahouses, where geisha and their maiko apprentices, wearing fancy kimono and hair ornaments, perform in dance and music — is regularly targeted by smartphone-wielding visitors, some of whom ignore signs requesting that they keep their distance and refrain from touching the women’s expensive kimonos.
There have also been complaints about people trespassing on private property.
Complaints about overzealous tourists began bubbling years ago, although the discontent cooled when the COVID-19 pandemic brought a lull in tourism. Now, visitors are back with a frenzy. In December last year, the council urged the city’s government to take action against unruly tourists, complaining that their neighborhood was “not a theme park.”
Ota said that some visitors behave like amateur paparazzi when they spot a geisha walking along narrow streets, some of which are just 2m wide.
The number of foreign visitors soared 79.5 percent in January from a year earlier to about 2.69 million, reaching levels seen in the same month in 2019.
The largest number of travelers came from South Korea, followed by those from Taiwan and China, Kyodo News said.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
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