Wild footage has emerged of a Japanese man engaging in a screaming match with a pair of Australian tourists for smoking on a ski field.
The viral GoPro clip shows the snowboarder aggressively approaching a woman seen holding a cigarette and a can of beer at a ski resort.
“Don’t smoke, it’s not polite!” he yells, as she tells him “sorry.”
“Sorry? What sorry?!” the man screams.
The woman reacts indignantly, yelling back, “I beg your pardon! I did not know! Don’t yell!”
Her companion then steps in, telling the man, “Don’t yell at her, she didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know?!” the Japanese man exclaims.
“No, it’s her first time,” the Australian replies.
The snowboarder calls them “a–holes” as he begins to walk away, prompting the woman to mutter “f–king crazy, man.”
That sets off the snowboarder, who storms back screaming, “What?! What?!”
The man then steps in again warning, “You’re going to touch her I’ll knock you out. You don’t talk to women like that.”
“You don’t smoke,” the Japanese man insists.
“Yeah you don’t talk to women like that either, mate,” the Australian replies.
“A–holes,” the snowboarder says again as he walks off.
Smoking is banned in many public spaces in Japan and is generally frowned upon outdoors, while indoor smoking is more common, often in designated rooms.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the incident took place, but the footage has gone viral on social media with more than 13 million views on X and thousands of comments on Reddit.
“As an Australian who’s lived in Japan for years, the locals get pretty sick of our s–t when we break rules and act rudely,” one Reddit user wrote.
“There are no smoking signs all over Japan! She knew what she was doing,” another claimed.
A third commented, “I’m 99 percent sure this is the Oakley lookout at the Happo One Resort in Hakuba. If so, there are clear signs that smoking is only allowed for ‘heated tobacco’ and that’s in the smoking rooms. It’s well known that smoking in public is not allowed in Japan.”
A fourth agreed “She’s in the wrong for smoking, and visiting Japan it’s very clear you can’t just smoke anywhere so she probably knew she was in the wrong” but argued, “he was way too aggressive in his approach, and should have left it after she apologized.”
But another Australian living in Japan argued “Many people are absolutely fed up here with tourists.”
“Thing is, Japan doesn’t really need tourism, yet it’s so popular and brings in a lot of cash to their economy so it works out well,” they said. “But over-tourism here is a massive issue, it’s at the point where it’s affecting everyday people in Japanese society.”
Skyrocketing tourist numbers since COVID-19 have sparked a growing backlash in Japan as hordes of foreigners overrun the country, leading to widespread complaints of overcrowding and poor behavior.
A record 36.9 million international visitors entered the country of 125 million in 2024, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO), a 47.1 percent year-on-year increase and five million more than the previous record set in 2019.
While the economic benefit to Japan was estimated to be a record 44.6 trillion yen ($455 billion) last year, locals in cities like Kyoto feel the numbers have been overwhelming.
Many ordinary Japanese “quietly and politely hate” the tourism boom, as the Asia Times put it.
A survey by Jalan Research Center in November found that 60 percent of Japanese felt there were too many tourists, with overcrowding on public transport and in restaurants, bad manners, rubbish, and the effect on the atmosphere of residential areas among the most cited complaints.
Some cities have already taken action to crack down on badly behaved tourists, with Kyoto early in 2024 banning tourists from entering certain alleys in Gion, the famous geisha district after fed-up locals complained their neighborhood was “not a theme park.”
Seeking to address such concerns, the Japanese government launched a new initiative last year titled Comprehensive Measures for the Prevention and Mitigation of Overtourism, which focused on “excessive congestion and etiquette violations, attracting visitors to regional areas and promoting tourism in collaboration with local residents”, Olesia Silanteva from the University of Tsukuba writes.
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“Overtourism can trigger social tensions, evidenced by situations such as in Kyoto, where residents may feel marginalized in their own city, leading to conflicts and a breakdown of community cohesion,” she notes.
The weak yen has proved a major pull for tourists, including Australians who have taken advantage of the relative strength of the Aussie dollar.
Between January and September 2024, visitors from Australia totaled a record 637,300, an increase of 42 percent over the same period for the previous record in 2019, according to the JNTO.
Australian visitors also rank as one of the top markets for total length of stay in Japan.
The government of Japan even took the rare action last month of pleading with Australians to venture beyond Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka in a bid to ease the strain.
“We strongly encourage Australians to consider lesser-known destinations, as well as look at shoulder travel seasons, such as autumn, as well as Japan’s summer — known locally as the ‘green season’ where the country’s rural and regional areas really come into their own,” Naoki Kitazawa, executive director of JNTO’s Australian office, told news.com.au.
Kitazawa said traveling responsibly was “more important than ever” and both Japan’s local communities and foreign tourists could benefit from a wider dispersal of tourism.
“Tokyo, Kyoto, and the Golden Route offer incredible experiences, but there’s so much more to discover beyond the obvious and what’s trending on social media,” he said.
“Just like in Australia, the real magic often lies in exploring the hidden gems of cities and popular destinations, where you’ll find the true essence and diversity of the culture.”
