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On July 1, 2025, we launched Japan Wire by Kyodo News, rebranding our English-language business-to-consumer online site previously called Kyodo News Plus.
As is the case for Kyodo News Plus, Japan Wire will carry select articles that Kyodo, an international news agency based in Tokyo, runs from an impartial and independent perspective.
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Tokyo Weekender
6 hours ago
- Tokyo Weekender
Two-Tier Pricing in Japan: Why Tourists Are Paying More
In Okinawa's new Junglia theme park, there are two ways to buy a one-day pass. If you land on the park's English-language site, the ticket price is ¥8,000 yen before tax — ¥8,800 after. That's about $59 at today's exchange rate. Switch to the Japanese-language portal, though, and the same ticket costs ¥6,930, tax included — around $47. But you can't just click and buy it. You'll need to enter a Japanese address and phone number. According to Honichi , the policy comes from Katana Marketing, headed by Morioka Tsuyoshi, the man credited with pulling Universal Studios Japan out of a tailspin two decades ago. Katana's reasoning is simple: Inbound tourists spend three times as much as domestic visitors. If they have the means — and the willingness — to pay more, why not let them? This is what's known as two-tier pricing — charging one price to locals and another, usually higher, price to visitors. And in Japan right now, it's showing up in places you might not expect. List of Contents: A Growing Trend The Global Norm Why People Are Talking About Two-Tier Pricing in Japan When It Works — and When It Doesn't The Real Fix Related Posts A Growing Trend Theme parks are one thing, but for some, apparently, restaurants are something else. Japan's largest restaurant review and reservation platform, Tabelog , operates separate booking systems for domestic and inbound customers. On the English, Chinese and Korean versions, users must enter a credit card and pay a ¥440 per person system fee at the time of booking. The domestic site requires no card and charges no such fee. The logic here is that foreign customers bring different transaction costs, and the platform passes them along. Then there's the case of the seafood buffet restaurant in Shibuya that sparked a backlash on Reddit and X earlier this year. The shop, Tamatebako, charges foreign tourists ¥1,100 more than Japanese nationals and foreign residents for its all-you-can-eat course, verifying status by checking if customers can speak Japanese or by requesting a residence card. 'Considering the rise in labor costs due to service costs and time used to serve [foreign customers], we have no other choice but to set the different prices,' the restaurant owner told Yomiuri Shimbun . These explanations didn't land well. On social media, users accused the restaurant of 'being horrible racist, discriminatory xenophobes,' as one commenter put it. Long-term residents voiced a different frustration — the fear of being misclassified. 'And um, how do they know? When I've been here for two decades I'm not a goddamn tourist, despite what everyone thinks,' one wrote . The debate spread beyond Shibuya. When a tonkatsu restaurant in Asakusa announced plans for a 10% service charge 'for foreign tourists,' another thread lit up. 'Imagine the face of Japanese tourists if Paris restaurants started to charge them more than the displayed menu. (A tale that won't happen, as it would be highly illegal here),' a French commenter wrote . The Global Norm Before we get too precious about this, let's acknowledge the obvious: Charging visitors more is normal almost everywhere. India's Taj Mahal charges foreign visitors 1100 RS, or roughly $12 — over twenty times the domestic price. France's Louvre Museum is free for residents of the European Economic Area under 26. Everyone else over 18 pays €22. Many U.S. national parks have lower entry fees for state residents and higher rates for out-of-staters. In Southeast Asia, 'foreigner rates' at attractions are so common they're part of the travel budget. The justification is consistent: Locals help pay for the upkeep of these sites through taxes. Visitors do not, so they make up the difference at the gate. It's not discrimination; it's fiscal logic. Japan already has its own reverse example: the consumption tax exemption . Foreign tourists and temporary returnees can avoid paying the 10% sales tax on a wide range of purchases. It's effectively a nationwide 'tourist discount.' 'We get the 10% tax free benefit on pretty much everything. I don't mind paying a bit more for the food,' said a user on Reddit. Why People Are Talking About Two-Tier Pricing in Japan Two-tier pricing isn't new to Japan — it's just more visible now. The conditions are perfect for it to spread. The yen's slide has made the country absurdly cheap for visitors paying in dollars or euros; that omakase dinner that would cost $250 in New York is ¥12,000 here, and a coffee that's $5 in Paris is ¥400 in Tokyo. Tourism is surging, with over 36 million visitors in 2024 — the highest number ever — and the influx is concentrated in a few already-strained regions like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Okinawa and Hokkaido. Inbound tourists spend a substantial amount per person, averaging around ¥227,000 in 2024 . Without differentiated pricing, locals risk being priced out of their own neighborhoods as businesses raise prices to match what tourists are willing to pay. Two-tier pricing is, in that sense, a way to keep services accessible to residents. When It Works — and When It Doesn't Hawaii's kamaʻāina discount is the textbook example: Show proof of residency, get a reduced price. It's transparent, consistent and residency-based. It doesn't matter what you look like, what passport you hold or what language you speak — it matters whether you live there. Japan could apply the same logic to attractions, restaurants and services in tourist-heavy areas. For places funded in part by local taxes — museums, gardens, heritage sites — the justification is even stronger. So the problem isn't the principle of two-tier pricing. It's the execution. Too often, 'tourist' is defined by sight alone. If you look foreign, you might be charged more. If you speak accented Japanese, you might be charged more. When tourist prices are decided on sight, long-term residents — people who've lived in Japan for decades, pay taxes and raise children in Japanese schools — can find themselves erroneously paying 'tourist' rates based on their appearance. One foreign resident said on Reddit: 'There are levels to which this is acceptable. But it's a slippery slope and I'm not looking forward to having to explain that I'm not a tourist to restaurants profiling customers.' In other words, it's about more than money. Being treated as a 'visitor' in your own neighborhood cuts deeper than a 10% surcharge. Discover Tokyo, Every Week Get the city's best stories, under-the-radar spots and exclusive invites delivered straight to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy . The Real Fix Let's be clear: Charging tourists more is not scandalous. A ten-percent upcharge on a meal that costs half what it would in London or New York is hardly exploitative. If you're flying across the Pacific for a vacation, you can afford seventy extra yen. As one Reddit user put it: 'I think people coming here in endless hordes to exploit the weak currency can probably afford an extra dollar here and there. This goes especially true for things which I think ought to be giving priority to locals.' For short-term visitors who bristle at paying a bit more, it's worth remembering that Japan's omotenashi — its ethic of generous, anticipatory hospitality — is a cultural offering, not an open invitation to extract maximum value at minimum cost. When pricing is transparent, residency-based and tied to real economic factors like tax contribution, it's a practical tool for balancing tourism and local access. Japan has every right to use it, especially in tourist-heavy areas where demand from abroad distorts the market. The problem comes when the criteria are vague and enforcement is left to a glance at someone's face. That's when policy slides into prejudice. If Japan wants to charge tourists more, it must set clear rules and remove subjective judgment from the equation. A national standard — with definitions, documentation and guidelines — would prevent the current patchwork of ad hoc decisions and awkward confrontations at the counter. Here's the harder truth: If Japanese wages kept pace with other developed economies and the yen regained its purchasing power, the gap between what locals can afford and what tourists are willing to pay would shrink. The whole debate over two-tier pricing would fade into the background. Until then, the question isn't whether Japan can charge tourists more — it's whether it will do so with the clarity and fairness that respects both the residents who live here and the guests passing through. Related Posts Mount Fuji To Double Toll Fees Next Year To Address Overcrowding Mayor Considers Quadrupling Himeji Castle Entry Fee for Tourists
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Swiss watchmaker Swatch apologies for ad showing gesture seen as racist
FILE - The logo of Swiss watchmaker "Swatch" is pictured on the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, file) Swiss watchmaker Swatch apologized Monday for an ad campaign that upset consumers in China and elsewhere and said it had 'immediately removed all related materials worldwide.' In an image for the Swatch Essentials collection, an Asian male model is shown pulling the edges of his eyelids upward and backward with his fingers — a gesture seen as derogatory and racist, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported. Swatch wrote on Instagram that 'we sincerely apologize for any distress or misunderstanding this may have caused.' It said it would 'treat this matter with the utmost importance.' SRF reported that the apology was also posted on the Chinese social network Weibo in Chinese and English. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
England's sparkling wine is losing its fizz
I do enjoy a glass of champagne but I often wish I could substitute the experience with English varietals, especially those grown by friends. It's been a struggle. Growing pains are increasingly evident in the English sparkling wine industry. As with all aspirational consumer products the hype can easily get ahead of itself. It's all too often a rich person's folly, with micro vineyards increasingly popping up all over the southern English countryside in the past decade as the latest show-off toy. But national pride can only take it so far. More than two-thirds of U.K. wine production is fizz. There are over 200 vineyards producing over 12 million bottles but the average size is just 1.6 hectares. The Champagne region produces more than 300 million bottles per year, with houses such as LVMH's Moet & Chandon selling 30 million alone. However, venerable grand marques such as Taittinger Cie Commercial, Vranken-Pommery Monopole and Spanish Cava-producing giant Freixenet have cannily built operations in the U.K., a prudent insurance policy against climate change. For the plucky wannabe winemakers though, the upfront costs of planting a vineyard are staggering; it can take as long as 10 years before a commercial product sees the light, and that's before required bottle-aging. Phil Weeks, head of trade sales at British wine merchant Lea & Sandeman, tells me the industry is still too small to offer realistic economies of scale to make any real impact on the already saturated U.K. wine market. The variety of foreign wines is probably the most sophisticated and mature in the world. It really doesn't help having higher taxes now measured on alcohol content. The going is only getting tougher for fledgling startups. Overseas sales are growing into Norway, Japan and even the U.S., but in global scale the numbers are negligible. English sparkling is only 4% of its domestic market, about a third of champagne's well-entrenched market share — and not a patch on Italian prosecco, which comprises over half of all fizz sold in the U.K. Kylie Minogue — whose name-brand prosecco has "conquered Britain,' the Guardian told us — has a lot to answer for. The industry is ripe for consolidation into bigger producers, with only a handful of vineyards shifting nearly 1 million bottles per year and widespread reports of many struggling to sell their production. A greater focus on quality and affordability will be vital, and that means greater specialization too from niche artisanal growers focused purely on achieving the best. As well as playing with the mix of grape varieties used, innovation is key — as champagne fiercely protects its brand using all the wiles of the European Union single market — then the U.K. industry has to think outside the box, such as adopting more of the cooperative model. There are shafts of sunlight though. The mercurial grower Dermot Sugrue's 'The Trouble With Dreams' 2009 was the first sparkling wine magnum ever to be crowned in the top 50 wines of the world at the Decanter 2025 awards — seriously high praise and beating off Champagne's finest. A frequent criticism of English wine its its relative high cost on restaurant wine lists compared with often better quality champagne, but winning major competitions is a fine riposte. Of course, sadly it's now sold out. One model stands out to me — the boutique approach. Not many sparkling winemakers get to be the official in-house tipple of a monarch's private residence but a friend of mine, Nick Hall, owner of Herbert Hall vineyard in Kent, England has that accolade. Not just fit for a King but served by one at his private residence, Highgrove. Small is beautiful, as he produces just 20,000 bottles a year so it's great to see King Charles III supporting truly creative English wineries. It's been quite a journey for Hall from journalism, to a spell in advertising then working with art galleries — but he gave it all up for the grip of the grape. His sharp turn toward "artisanal fruit farming' — otherwise termed making high-end sparkling wine by the traditional champagne method — also tracks the fortunes of this nascent English industry. His model from the start has been to do it all — from soup to nuts. Which means planting the vines, picking the grapes, doing all the fiddly clever wine-making bits, putting the labels on, hawking his product and running a bar at the winery. The alternative is the growing band of owners who have clubbed together to form the Surrey Hills vineyards to share the costs of production and increase marketing clout. Several of them serve their produce along with food platters among their vines — it's a neat trick that delivers instant cash flow, vital to help bridge the laborious yearslong process of actually selling your wine for a profit. It mirrors the bucolic image that British holidaymakers hold of traveling around the French countryside, stopping to try the wines and maybe buying a case from a small grower. Except that reality now involves booking long in advance with stiff entrance fees if my recent experience in Champagne is any guide. English wine needs to grow up fast, consolidate and also diversify — otherwise it will wither on the vine as just a quirky oddity only bought because you're British. It faces tough competitors who defend their patch with vigor. If English wine could just get a little better and a lot cheaper I promise to do my bit. Marcus Ashworth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European markets.
