Where have all the New York Japanese gone?

[imomus]

Anecdotal observation: I've been working as an unreliable tour guide at the Whitney for a week now and I've only seen two Japanese people.

Hypothesis: New York, once a playground for the Japanese, especially art and culture tourists, has seen a heavy disinvestment by Japanese visitors in recent years.



Speculation: If they're not coming any more, why not? Is it fear of terrorism? Is it because the city just isn't what it once was? Has the (now ending) recession in Japan kept Japanese tourists closer to home? Are Asian destinations now trendier than American ones? Are fewer travel articles about New York appearing in Japanese magazines?

Statistics: The New York Times reports in 2004 "a 30 percent drop in overseas visitors to the United States since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001... Fear of terrorism contributed to a 12.6 percent decline in Japanese tourism to the United States." The ITA Office of Travel, reporting in 2003, noted declines in Japanese tourists to the US of 7% per month, although found that rate slowing.

Observations: I've been walking around Manhattan checking out Japanese haunts. Had dinner at Saka Gura on 43rd Street with Karl Haley on Sunday night. Takashi Murakami came up and congratulated me on being in the Whitney. Well, he's still here, anyway! Stuyvesant Street still has its little cluster of Japanese businesses: Panya, Hoshi Coupe and Sunrise Mart. And Sunrise Mart now has a new branch on Broome Street. It's doing very well... but whereas most of the visitors to their St Marks branch seem to be Japanese, most of the customers here are well-heeled Caucasian SoHo shoppers popping in for a snack.

Advice for travellers: Apparently Japanese tourists in the US are easily ripped off because of their "trusting nature". Innocents abroad details why. "Con games ("shinyosagi" in Japanese), in general, appeal to the weaknesses of people to separate them from their money," this page tells us. "Con artists lean on Japanese trust, innocence, desire to help, or greed." It's strange to hear trust, innocence and desire to help being described as "weaknesses", ne?

Home truths from abroad: In a Japan Today vox pop about how Japan can be a more friendly place for visitors from overseas, an old man called Endo says: "Nobody is going to visit a country that is cold and selfish. When I traveled to the U.S. and South Korea, the people were really kind and helpful. It almost brought me to tears when I had to leave and say farewell to the people whom I met during my short stay. People will come, regardless of government policy, if a nation possesses an 'affectionate heart.'"

Conclusion: Further research needed -- must check out the art schools, and the Armory Show, which opens tomorrow. Look, there's Popeye turning Japanese on the poster!

Comments

[bricology.livejournal.com]

I don't have any insight into the Japanese presence in NY, but here in SF, things are changing too.

If it's of any interest, I'll back up a little: SF was the first city in the US to have a major Japanese involvement, and by 1940, Japantown (a few blocks west of where I live) covered some 20 city blocks. By 1942, when all Japanese-Americans had been relocated to internment camps, Japantown became a ghost town. The City decided to house thousands of the people who had moved here from the deep South to work in the shipyards--into the now unoccupied housing there, which changed the neighborhood from Japanese-American to African-American. After the war, these people weren't willing to return to their former homes in the South.

When the internment camps were closed in 1945, the former residents returned to find their neighborhood quite changed, and many of them--feeling unsafe in their own homes--moved away rather than stay and face any conflicts; a tendency they brought with them from Japan. Due to a number of factors, the size of Japantown shrank to what it is now--about 8 blocks. And now, Japantown Center--the three-block-long mall of Japanese shops and restaurants that anchors Japantown--is up for sale.

The first group to express interest in purchasing it is a Chinese consortium. That doesn't bode well for the Japanese character of Japantown. Already Chinese and Koreans have bought up stores and other properties in the heart of Japantown, changing its character. And stores are already suffering under the impact of shoplifters and general thuggery from the Western Addition spilling over into what was previously an honest, safe neighborhood. If the mall sells to anyone but another Japanese group (or an unusually sensitive buyer of other ethnicity), San Francisco's Japantown is doomed. It deeply troubles me to see the community threatened like this.

I have many Japanese friends who live in SF, most of whom came after the Bubble burst, or during our internet boom--but have stayed on. For all its problems with homeless people and scam artists, San Francisco probably feels safer to many Japanese people than does New York, and perhaps less overwhelming. We may get a more broad cross-section of Japanese tourists as well; I suspect that many of New York's Japanese visitors fall within a narrower demographic.

And I entirely agree that it's a shame to see such positive qualities as trust, innocence and helpfulness referred to as "weaknesses". I appreciate these traits in my Japanese friends, and feel somewhat protective towards them, to try to maintain those qualities. They're traits that people of all ethnicities and nationalities would do well to emulate.

Sorry this was so long-winded! You raised a number of interesting points, and I just wanted to share the perspective from the other coast.

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

I think the Japanese liked America better when they could come over and throw their financial weight around. In other countries, special "Japanese only" places are set up for tour groups and vacations.

When market pressure comes to bear and Japan comes up short, they tend to give up and go home, rather than stay and fight for it.


I have never been to Japantown in SF, but I really would like to go someday...even if it's only to see a bunch of people that look like I do.

[bricology.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the "Japanese Only" situations are due--more than any other factor--to the fear of the unmanageable. Take, for example, onsen in Japan. Many of them have "Japanese Only" rules because of bad experiences with gaikokujin coming in and being disrespectful, rude, etc. All it takes is two US servicemen on leave, (or a couple of Russian sailors) with a little too much sake in them, coming into a place that had previously felt safe to the Japanese, and causing trouble--to get all non-Japanese banned.

If you bear in mind the extremely low crime rate in Japan (especially violent crimes) and the way that you don't have to worry about thieves nearly as much, it's intuitive that the Japanese would want to establish little safe havens for their own kind. I can't blame 'em a bit.

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

It's intuitive when they do it, but if Americans did it, we'd be crucified internationally.


And the Japanese do it because they are inherently racist, I think.

[bricology.livejournal.com]

Of *course* we Americans would be crucified. After all, we're the ones touting how multicultural and integrated we are. This is, of course, a great overstatement; segregation was still going on during my lifetime.

Every nation and every ethnic group is inherently racist, from WASPs to the Japanese to African-Americans; that's just the way that our species evolved. Of course, it's nice if we can overcome this, but it's fatuous to think that racism only works one way, or that only some groups are culpable. I assure you--as racially self-preferential as the Japanese may be vis-a-vis other groups, most other groups are towards their own as well. Perhaps nations that have long histories of immigration (such as the US and Australia) should be held to a higher standard of inclusiveness.