Tripled Tourist Tax Used to Catch Bears, Drawing Criticism

Criticism is rising that the tax revenue from Japan's "international tourist departure tax," which was raised starting last month, is being used for measures against bears rather than its original purpose.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that the departure tax, introduced to improve tourism environments for foreign visitors to Japan, is being used for bear control and cherry tree pest control projects.

The departure tax is collected when leaving Japan, usually added to the fare when purchasing tickets for flights or ships heading overseas.

Starting on the 1st of last month, Japan tripled the departure tax from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen.

Japan previously projected that the tax hike would increase this year's tax revenue by 81 billion yen compared to the previous year, and announced plans to use this increased revenue to fund measures against overtourism caused by the surge in foreign tourists.

The Asahi Shimbun pointed out that the increased departure tax revenue has been used for measures such as capturing bears and conducting ecological surveys, which have been occurring frequently in Japan recently.

Out of the 6.2 billion yen budgeted for this project, 6 billion yen came from the increased departure tax revenue.

In the case of the cherry tree pest control project, the entire newly allocated budget of 600 million yen is planned to be covered by the departure tax.

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan explained that foreigners are also at risk of bear attacks, benefiting tourists visiting Japan, and that many tourists come to Japan to see cherry blossoms.

The Asahi Shimbun criticized that damage caused by bear sightings has a greater impact on daily life than on tourist destinations, and added that the cherry tree pest control also appears to have little relevance to inbound tourists.

(Reported by Kim Taewon | Video Editing by E:U | Design by Sumin | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.