A restaurant in Kyoto, Japan, has sparked a "foreigner overcharging" controversy after it emerged that it listed different prices on its foreign-language and Japanese-language menus. The case comes as a dual-pricing system, which charges residents and tourists different rates in response to overtourism, spreads rapidly across Japan.
According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) on the 15th, the cumulative number of visitors to Japan from January to April this year exceeded 14 million for the second consecutive year. In April alone, the figure reached 3,692,200, a monthly high for the year. By country, South Korean visitors were the most numerous at 878,600. That marked a 21.7% increase from the same month a year earlier, an all-time high for April. In contrast, Chinese visitors to Japan in the same month totaled 330,700, down 56.8% from a year earlier.
The controversy began when a YouTube channel called "CKOONY," which has about 660,000 subscribers, posted a video of a visit to a sushi restaurant in Kyoto with a Chinese acquaintance. The English menu handed to Choi's group listed three pieces of tuna sushi at 1,980 yen (about 18,000 won), including tax.
Puzzled by the price, the two requested a Japanese-language menu. A server asked back, "Can you read Japanese?" and handed over the menu only after a long delay. The lowest-priced item on the Japanese menu was 500 yen (about 4,600 won), and a set menu was also priced at 5,214 yen (about 48,000 won) including tax, lower than on the English menu.
As the video spread through social media (SNS), Korean netizens raised a series of criticisms that the restaurant had "secretly overcharged only foreigners."
Separate from this incident, Japanese local governments openly operate dual-pricing systems that differentiate rates. Himeji City in Hyogo Prefecture revised the admission fee for Himeji Castle, a World Heritage site, from March, charging citizens 1,000 yen and non-residents 2,500 yen, or 2.5 times as much. As a result, admission revenue in March rose to about 270 million yen, double the same month a year earlier, but the number of visitors from March to April fell 15.8% from the same period a year earlier to about 300,000.
Kagoshima City, from October last year, set citizen rates 100 to 500 yen lower than those for non-residents at 14 facilities including a zoo, and Kitakyushu City did the same from April this year at four facilities including Kokura Castle. Kyoto City is reviewing a plan to differentiate city bus fares from 2027 as well. The plan would lower the current 230-yen fare to 200 yen for citizens and raise it to as much as 400 yen for non-residents. If a dual-pricing system is introduced for public transportation, it would be the first such case in Japan.
These local governments divide fares based on "residence" rather than "nationality," avoiding controversy over discrimination against foreigners. Himeji City also pursued a plan in 2024 to charge foreigners an admission fee six times that of citizens, but withdrew it after facing controversy over discrimination and opposition from the city council.
Some point out that setting different menu prices by language, as in the Kyoto restaurant case, carries greater potential for controversy than such official systems, because the basis or criteria are not disclosed. Japan's Tourism Agency plans to form an expert panel to survey how dual-pricing systems are operated by local governments and to prepare related guidelines within the year.
Tourism Agency Commissioner Shigeki Murata said at a news conference in March that the agency was reviewing the preparation of dual-pricing guidelines, and that when setting different rates, it is important to fully explain the basis to users. However, the agency's official position so far is that pricing is left to the discretion of facility operators.
The trend of charging tourists higher fees is not unique to Japan. France's Louvre Museum has charged tourists from non-European Union (EU) countries 45% more for admission from this year, and 11 national parks including the Grand Canyon in the United States, as well as Italy's Trevi Fountain, have decided to impose additional fees on foreigners.
Britain's British Museum, which had been free, is also considering introducing admission fees for foreigners. Whether the dual-pricing system will be an effective solution between the two tasks of expanding tourism revenue and curbing overtourism, or whether it will drive tourists away, has yet to be determined.
