Japan ‘becoming very angry’ with misbehaving social media influencers

Japan is growing increasingly exasperated with foreign social media influencers who stage disruptive stunts and brazenly flout local norms, as calls grow louder for tougher action to be taken against them.

Last week, footage was posted on TikTok and other social media platforms showing a foreign man in an orange hat sitting on the floor in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kyoto.

In the video, the man is approached by a police officer who asks him to leave as he is not a guest. He largely ignores both the officer and the translator and stares blankly into space. Later, when the officer tries to open his bag, the man turns to the camera and says, “I have not given them permission to touch my bag.”

The footage immediately provoked angry comments, with one message reading, “Japanese police officers are too polite” and another suggesting, “Foreign tourists are taking Japan for granted.”

Makoto Watanabe, a professor of communications and media at Hokkaido Bunkyo University in Eniwa, Hokkaido, said the Japanese public was struggling to understand why streamers act in this way – but added, “We are becoming very angry.”