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A future where Miyazaki prefecture become littered with grandparent-fueled Ghibli characters and quickly become overrun with tourists... Or kids at this specif

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...

bobthepanda 1y ago
Kyushu is quite far off the beaten tourist path, so I doubt it would get a lot of non-domestic traveling.
- muststopmyths 1y ago
  I believe you’re underestimating the rapacious hunger of the click economy
  - geodel 1y ago
    Can't really blame click economy when travel is promoted as universal good from local, state and national governments all over the world. Travel used to be few times in a lifetime thing. Now it is like everyone should be traveling few times a year at least.
    - teekert 1y ago
      Like eating meat daily. At some point the masses want, and get, what was once just for the elite.
      - Tade0 1y ago
        Or driving cars for that matter.
    - mvdtnz 1y ago
      > Now it is like everyone should be traveling few times a year at least You and I live in different worlds. I only know one person who travels that often, after he became wealthy from a successful buy out. Overwhelmingly the people around me travel a handful of times in a lifetime.
      - anonzzzies 1y ago
        Most people I know are not rich but have or had ok jobs and they all travel 4-5x / year. Most do all inclusive trips mixed with once a year a longer trip. It is quite weird as I myself am somewhat confused how they manage; when asked they mostly say that they dont have other use for the money anyway.
- FlyingSnake 1y ago
  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.
- tokioyoyo 1y ago
  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.
fitsumbelay 1y ago
possible but more a corner case that additionally takes one along the opposite vibe trajectory to the story's so ... why?
jacobgkau 1y ago
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.
- movedx 1y ago
  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.
  - hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
    >little to no financial growth or benefit to the local economy. Look at Venice A quick Google search confirms tourism is the dominant industry in Venice. The claim that this fuels "little to no financial growth", is therefore first-order backwards. If you could set forth an edict and gradually empty Venice out into a touristless town over the next 5 years, you would probably see economic growth tumble downwards, not up. Now capitalism would eventually catch up, it always does. Italians are cool people and hard workers. But ask e.g. the Baltic states whether they're secretly happy they lost ~a century of economic growth before finally getting the chance to enter a boom time, because it meant their economies stayed local. Then ask them another question: Suppose you didn't have much industry of note, but tourists just loved you and flocked from all over the world to see you, would you take that? I think you'd have a lot of takers. One should a much stronger argument than "But... but tourism is icky" before you go messing with one of the primary economic levers of a whole city. Preferably an argument backed up by graphs and forecasts, because it runs contrary to basic economic wisdom. Absent those I feel comfortable guessing that the median Japanese town which bans tourists will probably suffer economically for it, in no small part because that suggests tourists were at some point a big deal. Any eventual industrial rebound, if it happens at all, will happen because they gradually became cheaper to work in than surrounding areas (I wonder why?), and would not be sufficient to make up for the lost compound growth of the 5-10 years where a key industry for that area was kneecapped.
zombiwoof 1y ago
As least Japan doesn’t have a bunch of sheep tech bros building a Burning Man every year pretending they are cool
ekianjo 1y ago
> 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
squigz 1y ago
Doesn't pessimism like this exhaust you?
danielscrubs 1y ago
Luckily tourists are a political problem, which the corona restrictions clearly showed.

bobthepanda 1y ago

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

muststopmyths 1y ago
I believe you’re underestimating the rapacious hunger of the click economy
- geodel 1y ago
  Can't really blame click economy when travel is promoted as universal good from local, state and national governments all over the world. Travel used to be few times in a lifetime thing. Now it is like everyone should be traveling few times a year at least.
  - teekert 1y ago
    Like eating meat daily. At some point the masses want, and get, what was once just for the elite.
    - Tade0 1y ago
      Or driving cars for that matter.
  - mvdtnz 1y ago
    > Now it is like everyone should be traveling few times a year at least You and I live in different worlds. I only know one person who travels that often, after he became wealthy from a successful buy out. Overwhelmingly the people around me travel a handful of times in a lifetime.
    - anonzzzies 1y ago
      Most people I know are not rich but have or had ok jobs and they all travel 4-5x / year. Most do all inclusive trips mixed with once a year a longer trip. It is quite weird as I myself am somewhat confused how they manage; when asked they mostly say that they dont have other use for the money anyway.
FlyingSnake 1y ago
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.
tokioyoyo 1y ago
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.

fitsumbelay 1y ago

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

jacobgkau 1y ago

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.

movedx 1y ago
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.
- hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
  >little to no financial growth or benefit to the local economy. Look at Venice A quick Google search confirms tourism is the dominant industry in Venice. The claim that this fuels "little to no financial growth", is therefore first-order backwards. If you could set forth an edict and gradually empty Venice out into a touristless town over the next 5 years, you would probably see economic growth tumble downwards, not up. Now capitalism would eventually catch up, it always does. Italians are cool people and hard workers. But ask e.g. the Baltic states whether they're secretly happy they lost ~a century of economic growth before finally getting the chance to enter a boom time, because it meant their economies stayed local. Then ask them another question: Suppose you didn't have much industry of note, but tourists just loved you and flocked from all over the world to see you, would you take that? I think you'd have a lot of takers. One should a much stronger argument than "But... but tourism is icky" before you go messing with one of the primary economic levers of a whole city. Preferably an argument backed up by graphs and forecasts, because it runs contrary to basic economic wisdom. Absent those I feel comfortable guessing that the median Japanese town which bans tourists will probably suffer economically for it, in no small part because that suggests tourists were at some point a big deal. Any eventual industrial rebound, if it happens at all, will happen because they gradually became cheaper to work in than surrounding areas (I wonder why?), and would not be sufficient to make up for the lost compound growth of the 5-10 years where a key industry for that area was kneecapped.

zombiwoof 1y ago

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

ekianjo 1y ago

> 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

squigz 1y ago

Doesn't pessimism like this exhaust you?

danielscrubs 1y ago

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