Research Teaser: How Japan Talks About Tourism Online

Research Teaser: How Japan Talks About Tourism Online

I am currently working on a research project exploring how rising tourism in Japan is discussed on X (formerly Twitter) and how political statements, media coverage, and real-world events shape public sentiment. Japan has recently reached record-breaking visitor numbers, and with this growth comes an increasingly emotional and polarized online debate — especially around terms like kankō kōgai (tourism pollution) and ōbātsūrizumu (overtourism).

My project examines several key questions:

• How does the volume of inbound tourism relate to negative sentiment on X? Do more visitors automatically generate more online criticism — or do other factors matter more?
• Which events trigger spikes in digital debates? Are these reactions driven by actual crowding, viral videos, or political rhetoric?
• How do different types of terms shape the discussion? For example, kankō kōgai appears frequently in emotional or moral criticism, while ōbātsūrizumu is used more in structural or policy-oriented contexts.
• How do tourism, migration, and security narratives connect to each other? Certain posts blend complaints about tourism with broader identity or immigration debates — raising the question of how online framing influences public discourse.

To answer these questions, I combine quantitative analysis of X posts with contextual insights from politics and media: tracking keyword frequencies over time, comparing them to official visitor statistics, and observing how political actors amplify certain frames.

A full summary of findings will follow soon — this is just a first glimpse into the project. If you’re interested in tourism, Japanese society, digital discourse, or agenda-setting, stay tuned — the results so far have been both surprising and highly relevant to current debates.