Americans Suddenly Fell in Love With Japan — Not Because It's Cheap, Because It's Normal
The real driver of Japan's tourism explosion isn't the exchange rate, it's the functionality of public space — clean subways, on time, no trash. What American visitors experience in Tokyo is a society where entropy has been paused.
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An Excel sheet of 119 visitors
The questioner, Lisa, is a Japanese person living in Tokyo. She made a visitor calendar running from November 2022 to April 2026, with green cells marking days someone came to visit. She counted 119 people, 96 of them her own guests, averaging one person every five days, or 20% of all her days. She says she spends all her free time helping visiting friends plan itineraries. This data visualization is itself evidence that the problem has spun out of control, and it's the starting point for the question this episode sets out to answer.
— LisaJapan is poor in resources, rich in story
Roland Kelts argues the first reason for American interest in Japan isn't economic, it's narrative. He says Japan has almost no natural resources, no oil, very little land, only small rice paddies can be farmed, yet its story culture is astonishing. The world's first novel is Japanese, The Tale of Genji, a thousand years old. Through manga, anime and the internet, the whole world discovered this narrative capacity. This didn't start in the 1990s — Roland says there were two earlier waves: Japanism in late 19th-century Europe, and the Beats' and hippies' fascination with Zen and Buddhist concepts in the 50s and 60s.
— Roland Nozomu-KeltsAmerica used to fear Japan
David Marks points out that for seventy years after World War II, mainstream American feeling toward Japan was fear, not affection. Before 1945 Japan was an enemy nation; afterward it was seen as a developing country rebuilding itself. In the 70s and 80s it became anxiety about Japanese economic power, and Michael Crichton's Rising Sun cast Japan as the villain. After the Cold War ended there was even a CIA position paper discussing whether Japan should become the next enemy. When Japan's economic bubble burst in the 90s, America actually felt a kind of relief. When David moved to Japan in 2003, a friend visiting Japan was the event of the year, because basically nobody came.
— W. David MarksThe government made Japan cheap by hand
The third wave was a government plan. In 2003 Junichiro Koizumi launched the Visit Japan campaign, with a target raised from 5 million tourists a year to 10 million, and ads full of Western stereotypes — geisha, cherry blossoms, temples. But what actually worked was Shinzo Abe deliberately weakening the yen in the 2010s; the intent was to help exports, and the result was making hotels and restaurants cheap for foreigners. Roland says in Tokyo you can eat a very good soba lunch for under $10, while in New York $10 won't even buy you an apple and a banana. In 2013 Abe relaxed visas for Thailand and Malaysia, then China and Indonesia; Asian tourists surged first, and European and American tourists followed.
— Roland Nozomu-KeltsJapan's functionality is the biggest draw
Roland says the most important reason is functionality. Public space in many countries, especially the United States, has become disabled: parks are dirty and dangerous, rail systems are terrible, airports are a mess. In Japan, things simply work. PJ adds that when American ears hear complaints about poor public order or dirty subways, they read it as elitism, as the complaints of the rich. But in Japan, wanting a clean subway isn't elitism — it's the reverse: why shouldn't public things be good? On Tokyo streets you see no trash, not even cigarette butts, and you don't smell urine or feces. PJ says this isn't the reason people go the first time, but it may be the reason some people go again.
— Roland Nozomu-KeltsJapan reveres the people who make things, not the people who sell them
The sixth reason is craft. The Japanese word shokunin means artisan, someone who can make things extremely well, and such people are still respected in Japan, a status traceable to the 17th-century Edo period, when makers outranked merchants. Roland tells of someone in the anime industry explaining the Walmart model to him: in America, the company selling the goods comes first, nobody cares who made it, and a $5 pillow was made by someone who knows nothing about pillows. But in Japan, the person who makes a pillow extremely well is the most valuable. He took an American friend to a ramen shop, where you queue to buy a ticket, and the ticket said come back at 3 p.m.; after eating, the friend said it was the best soup of his life, then asked why they don't franchise. Roland said because franchising means you can't control the quality of the noodles, the scallions, the pork bone broth and the bamboo shoots — their scallions come from a man named Sato in Chiba who has done this for many years.
— Roland Nozomu-KeltsThe listener survey and the experts almost perfectly overlap
Search Engine sent a questionnaire to hundreds of thousands of listeners and got a huge number of replies. Nearly half mentioned culture; some said they'd binge-watched anime since childhood, played Nintendo and Sony, were fans of Pokemon and One Piece. About a quarter mentioned the weak yen; one said the exchange rate was the best in 30 years. Others mentioned craft. What delighted PJ most were the reasons only a big survey could catch: someone decided to go out of FOMO after seeing too many people go, someone went to see the Godzilla museum, and Godzilla brought in five listeners. There were also one-to-one stories: someone went to Japan to see the work of the legendary bonsai master Mazuhiko Kimura; someone fell in love with a person at 18, lost touch more than a decade later, and the only way to see them again was to fly to Japan, and ended up spending four magical days in Osaka.
— PJ VogtJapan is a place where entropy has been paused
Listeners' enthusiasm for functionality exceeded PJ's expectations. One said they took their family to Japan to show them what a high-functioning society actually looks like, everything on time, perfectly clean. One said public toilets are everywhere and have bidet functions, because everyone has to poop, and a shitty butt is disgusting. One said the world would be much better if every country respected each other the way Japanese people do with their punctuality and queuing. PJ himself says he still loves America, loves that anarchic mixture, but feels something broke about ten years ago — not just politics; drivers are angrier, people are angrier, elbows are sharper, and more people watch TikTok on the subway without headphones. He says America is like an eccentric friend who turned from quirky to not-so-good quirky, and that this is what makes Japan's appeal understandable.
— PJ VogtIn their own words · checked verbatim
My question was, why is every single person I know going to Japan or talking about going to Japan?
Lisa1:05
I often say that Japan is very poor in natural resources. There's no oil here, very little land. You know, you can grow rice, but only in these tiny rice paddies. It's a small country, but it's very rich in stories.
Roland Nozomu-Kelts8:34
A lot of countries around the world, particularly the U.S., have become dysfunctional. And I say that in terms of public space. The parks are dirty and dangerous. The railway system is atrocious. The airports are a mess. And when you're in Japan, things just work.
Roland Nozomu-Kelts29:37
In America, one way you can show you care about society is to ride the dirty subway. In Japan, one way you can show you care about society is to be really invested in the subway being clean.
Roland Nozomu-Kelts31:44
He said, so if you go into Walmart, you can buy a $5 pillow. And it was made by people who know nothing about pillows. They don't care about pillows. They're working in some factory in Southeast Asia or China. And he said, that's the Walmart model. But he said, in Japan, we actually think the person who made the pillow and made it really well is the most valuable person.
Roland Nozomu-Kelts38:02
I took my family to Japan so they could see what a high-functioning society really looks like, where everything runs on time, is perfectly clean.
PJ Vogt44:14
it's like i both love the way people live here and it's like an eccentric friend you know who is starting to turn the corner from eccentric to not well like it makes you understand the draw of japan
PJ Vogt45:18
Figures
| Lisa's total number of visitors since November 2022 | 119 people | 1:05 |
| Lisa's personal visitors | 96 people | 1:05 |
| Lisa's average visitor frequency | one person every five days, 20% of all her days | 2:06 |
| Foreign tourists to Japan in 2011 | 6 million | 19:20 |
| Foreign tourists to Japan in 2003 | about 5 million | 27:37 |
| Foreign tourists to Japan in 2025 | 42 million | 27:37 |
| Visit Japan campaign target | raise from 5 million to 10 million tourists a year | 24:29 |
| Price of a soba lunch in Tokyo | under $10 | 26:32 |
| Share of listener survey mentioning culture | nearly half | 41:10 |
Glossary
- soft power
- A concept coined by Harvard professor Joseph Nye, referring to influencing other countries through cultural attraction rather than coercion.
- shokunin
- A Japanese word for an artisan or chef who makes things extremely well, holding higher status in Japan than a merchant.
- Japanism
- The late 19th-century European fascination with Japanese art and culture, which especially influenced the French Impressionists.
How to listen
People curious about the Japan tourism phenomenon, founders and investors making calls on consumer and cultural trends, and readers who want to understand the contrast with American social dysfunction.
The social media segment from 28:37 to 29:37 is low on information and can be skipped.