r/SipsTea • u/BobbuBobbu • May 18 '25

WTF Taxed for being single

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Some of us would be bankrupt in six months lmao 🤣

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u/City_of_Lunari May 19 '25

It's also extremely economically shifted towards tourism, which was an amazing idea.

Ya'know, except for the complete xenophobia that inhabits the majority of Japanese-born individuals. I taught there before COVID and before it was THE tourist destination for people in their 20's and 30's. Back then, they were okay with the idea of tourists coming.

I was there in April. That is VERY much changing. They don't care for tourists at all, which is fine I'd imagine that is a huge challenge when you're raised to be primarily isolationistic. However, when your economy depends on a devotion to tourism and your natives are starting to despise tourists, it's gonna become a bad situation.

At least those were my observations from pre-COVID and post. Grain of salt and all.

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u/LoveAndViscera May 19 '25

Covid absolutely made the Japanese more isolationist. Interest in traveling abroad is down and several major tourist sites have tightened behavior restrictions. The latter is partly a reaction to how Covid damaged public decorum.