[spandrew]

A future where Miyazaki prefecture become littered with grandparent-fueled Ghibli characters and quickly become overrun with tourists...

Or kids at this specific stop are treated to a moment of joy while waiting for their train to come...

Time will tell...

[jacobgkau]

You can't just tell everyone to not do anything cool because it might attract too many tourists. That's a race to the bottom of a boring world.

[mc3301]

There are so many cool things like this all over Japan, and only a very small percentage of them get completely run-over with international tourists. Even an hour or two outside of Tokyo, many not-so-hidden treasures like this can be found. And there aren't many tourists at these spots.

Take last year's "Lawson with a view of Mount Fuji" thing. The city had to to take all kinds of counter-measures to international tourists flocking there just to take a photo. Meanwhile, there are dozens more Lawsons in the area with epic views of Mount Fuji in the background, and not a tourist in sight.

[movedx]

Yes and no.

Yes, I agree, because life would get boring really quickly. People should be able to express themselves (in a civil, legal manner) so that the world can be more colourful and filled with art and beauty.

But also no, I don't agree. Have you seen the impact tourism in Japan has had on the local ecosystem as of late? They've literally banned tourists in some areas because frankly: more tourists act like animals. They litter, act rude and disrespectful, and are just obnoxious. Also, in a lot of cases, they provide little to no financial growth or benefit to the local economy. Look at Venice, for example.

So I think when making something like this, there has to be some degree of forward thinking around how it's going to divert (tourist) traffic to the area and what impact that's going to have on the locals.

[bobthepanda]

Kyushu is quite far off the beaten tourist path, so I doubt it would get a lot of non-domestic traveling.

[muststopmyths]

I believe you’re underestimating the rapacious hunger of the click economy

[tokioyoyo]

Don’t underestimate domestic Japanese tourism! To be fair, it feels a bit different, compared to international, as there’s no language barrier and etc.

[FlyingSnake]

Isletwald in CH or Hallstatt in Austria were also quite far off the beaten path. That didn’t stop hordes of tourists from overrunning them.

[fitsumbelay]

possible but more a corner case that additionally takes one along the opposite vibe trajectory to the story's

so ... why?

[ekianjo]

> Or kids at this specific stop are treated to a moment of joy while waiting for their train to come...

Kids are becoming a rarity in Japan

[danielscrubs]

Luckily tourists are a political problem, which the corona restrictions clearly showed.

[squigz]

Doesn't pessimism like this exhaust you?

[zombiwoof]

As least Japan doesn’t have a bunch of sheep tech bros building a Burning Man every year pretending they are cool