Foreign visitors bring cash and headaches in Japan’s tourism boom

Locals bristle at higher prices, noise and garbage due to growing flood of tourists

Tourists shop in Osaka's Kuromon market. Governments and businesses all over Japan are scrambling to create a sustainable infrastructure for the growing flood of foreign visitors.

NATSUMI KAWASAKI, HIROFUMI YAMANAKA and HIROKI OBAYASHI, Nikkei staff writers

February 1, 2019 12:51 JST

TOKYO/SAPPORO, Japan -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to bring 40 million overseas visitors to Japan by 2020. Now it's up to local communities to accommodate them.

More than 30 million visitors came to Japan in 2018, part of a prolonged tourism boom that has brought roughly 4.5 trillion yen ($41 billion) a year to communities across the country.