Kyoto is so swamped with tourists that it has started a program to solicit donations from foreign visitors to help pay for the upkeep of temples, shrines and Zen gardens. Do you think this is a good idea?

Perhaps the tourists will donate money for rubbish bins.

Tourists already pay when they go to kinkakuji etc...also local tax for hotel and spend a lot of money in shopping.

Such initiative sounds like abusing just because yen is low.

Don't see the harm in asking. The worst that can happen is that nobody pays.

When I was in London recently, a number of churches now have machines set up where you can make contactless payments as a form of donation for the upkeep of the church. They only ask for a nominal amount anyway (this is the UK, not America, where religion is simply another branch of big business).

Request yes. Solicit no.

I know of many temples who take donations for repairs. 東大寺 was fixing its roof a number of years ago and I paid about ¥2000 to get my name and a blessing written inside a roof tile. I still have the certificate at home.

There are often monks outside stations asking for donations holding little bowls.

It's up to you if you want to give them anything.

Sake is sake whether or not a shrine priest in a luxury Crown or a dubious station monk drinks it.

Cheers to them both.

@Kaowaiinekochanknaw

But how can you be sure that the people outside railway stations are in fact priests? One who used to stand outside Shinjuku Station lived near me and was more a priest than I am.

If they don't get the amount they desire, it probably spark even more whining.

Demand, not solicit.

@Kaowaiinekochanknaw wrote, "There are often monks outside stations asking for donations holding little bowls."

Really? I do not recall ever seeing one.

Whilst I rarely go to the station, I cannot think of a time I have ever seen one anywhere.

But how can you be sure that the people outside railway stations are in fact priests? One who used to stand outside Shinjuku Station lived near me and was more a priest than I am.

I can't be sure if they are preists or not or how devoted they are to their practices. At both the station and the shrine.

Both seem to take donations though.

@Kaowaiinekochanknaw wrote, "There are often monks outside stations asking for donations holding little bowls."

Really? I do not recall ever seeing one.

Whilst I rarely go to the station, I cannot think of a time I have ever seen one anywhere.

I have seen many in the station over the years.

I passed by a spot where one usually stands this morning. But must have been on a prayer session or perhaps hungover from last night's prayer session, so he wasn't there this morning.

I would love to really see the numbers and compare to previous years.

We know that Mount Fuji number were all lies about over tourism seeing that in 2023 climbers were 223,000 but in 2007 it was 450,000 and pre 2019 the number were nearly alway around 300,000.

The " over tourism" is seeming to be more " over gaijin" than actually over tourism.

It is always confusing seeing these kind of articles while in the TV there is a commercial about how nice is to go and visit Kyoto in the fall. Maybe if they begin with stopping the promotion of the city it will have less overtourism?

So as I suspected.

It is a bit confusing as there are very different results on the number of tourists visiting Kyoto by different stats databases.

But the one thing they have in common is that the years with highest number of tourists are all pre pandemic.

Funny how it wasn't a problem back then.

So the Kyoto City official travel guide site says well over 50 million between 2013 and 2019 with 2015 getting nearly 60 million.

Go with claims 87 million in 2019 which is echoed by other articles written pre pandemic.

So someone is playing around with the numbers.

The Kyoto City official travel guide site article was written in December 2023 after Kyoto started its campaign of complaining and trying to come up with ways to charge foreign tourists more.

But Statista numbers were compiled before and like the rest they show from 2009 to 2019 between 74 million and 87.9 million pre pandemic.

Kyoto is claiming 78 million and saying it is a record high.

So explain the sudden change, why do all the stats before Kyoto whining say far higher number and now Kyoto is claiming 20 to 30 million fewer than all the other stats pre pandemic?

So we have Kyoto saying 2019 was 50 million and we have multiple other databases saying 87 million all published before Kyoto city started its anti foreigner campaign.

I forgot

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1180945/japan-tourist-numbers-in-kyoto-prefecture/

help pay for the upkeep of temples, shrines and Zen gardens.

These are tax exempt religious organizations already.

Do like other high tourists places in other countries, charge an entrance fee for everyone except those that are members of the congregation.

This is common in many historical churches in North America and Europe.

Local congregation members have a card or are on a registry so they can go in to pray but non congregation members/tourists pay a small entrance fee.

But this is not the job of the government.

More than 80% of Kyoto tourists are domestic ones.

Kyoto Prefecture saw a record 75.18 million tourists in 2023, up 13% from the year prior, the prefectural government announced on July 23.

In 2023, the city of Kyoto saw 50.28 million visitors, 66% of the prefecture's total.

Kyoto Prefecture saw a record 75.18 million tourists in 2023, up 13% from the year prior, the prefectural

But lower than in 2019 at 87.9 million.

2022 was the lowest non pandemic year since 2009

2009 was 74 million 2010 was 77 million 2016 and 2015 were 87.4 million.

So 2023 was around 14% lower than the previous peak and 10% to 14% lower than every year from 2014 to 2019.

So why was Kyoto not complaining in 2014 through 2019?

I think that when viewing the beautiful sites many tourists will be moved to contribute a little something extra to help out. A special pin for contributors over a set amount might be an incentive as well.

Charging or soliciting - same side of same coin.

Embracing the tourism reality in a place where even the old short.cuts are packed and my carriage the train to my nephew’s place near Fushimi Inari had about 3 locals and over 50 gaijin!!!

"Kyoto is so swamped with tourists that it has started a program to solicit donations from foreign visitors to help pay for the upkeep of temples, shrines and Zen gardens. "

Why just foreign tourists and not all tourists?

Asking for donations, yes -- absolutely. Taxing them by charging foreign visitors more for hotels, transportation, entry fees, etc., absolutely no.

And they should be asking ALL visitors, not just foreign.

Maybe Japan should consider actually promoting lesser known areas instead of the usual tourist traps?

Or maybe the Japanese government should force JR to lower their rail pass prices, so that people would dare to venture to other areas?

inkochi

Today 08:27 pm JST

Charging or soliciting - same side of same coin.

> Embracing the tourism reality in a place where even the old short.cuts are packed and my carriage the train to my nephew’s place near Fushimi Inari had about 3 locals and over 50 gaijin!!

That is great! Imagine 3 locals only. So basically without the foreigners the line would be losing money and cutting services like many outside the city centres across the country are.

But boy, did your nephew go around asking and counting?

This is what I mean about the xenophobic hysteria.

Kyoto had more tourists than before the pandemic and apparently it wasn't a problem.

Notice they keep using 2022 as the comparison.

Why not use 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019?

Oh right because those numbers are higher than today but mostly Japanese and by using those the xenophobia would show.

But maybe it isn't xenophobia, maybe it is an excuse they are looking for to justify charging foreigners more.

87.9 million mostly Japanese no problem but 75 million with a lot of foreigners, well that is a problem or a way to take their money and not have to give them anything like meals accomodation, souvenirs etc..

OK, so a simple question.

Why "foreign tourists" and not just tourists?

Maybe if just a handful of the thousands of high school students who make their yearly pilgrimage to Kyoto for their school trip donated then it wouldn't be incumbent on the foreign tourist to pony up! Oh, but they live here so they aren't expected to pay, right.

I somehow disagree with requiring people to pay donations to places of worship for its upkeep, but I do get why it's being considered. Japan is crafty, I'm sure some shrine or temple can come up with something such as selling a service or a cheap product that will serve as the donation for the upkeep. Over-tourism really is taking its toll on Japan.

There will be tourists who will be happy to donate and others who see it as someone else's responsibility.

Personally, I love how I can pass through some amazing temple grounds on a regular basis for free, and that whether I donate or not is entirely up to me.

It's better than a 2% temple surcharge on hotel stays, I guess.

I agree with donations to help with the upkeep of historical buildings. Most temples already have a collection box into which you can put notes and coins, it is possible to put more than 5 yen in, so I presume they must mean digital money or other alternative forms of payment.

What I disagree with is

"Kyoto is so swamped with tourists"

err no, fewer than in some years past, and anyway this is completely unconnected to the cost of temple upkeep. Is it perfectly possible to talk about Kyoto without framing it as "OMG ITS SO CROWDED AND THE CROWDS AFFECT EVERYTHING". Lets stop the lazy cliches.

and "it has started a program to solicit donations from foreign visitors"

As everyone points out, why only foreigners? Should this be "extend the program to foreign tourists" or something like that. Phrased as it is, it reads as ""lets grab the foreigner cash", which for a tourist destination is very poor PR.

Agree with the first poster! The most important thing Japan could do for keeping streets and temples clean is put some bloody rubbish bins around the place!

Not to be rude, but I think it's a bit weird. Temples already ask for donations perpetually since the beginning of time (not that it's improper). A donation is a donation, while it's "good" to say what it's used for; but as a tourist there's no way to ascertain what it's used for in the end nor is it really worth the time to do it.

When on one side you blame and promote anti tourism measures specifically targeting tourist then ask tourist to donate; it is just wild to me.