How this long-term resident avoids the annoying tourist label in Japan

Tourists enjoy themselves while crossing the famous Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo on Oct. 12. | REUTERS

Oct 25, 2026

Whenever I cross Tokyo’s famed Shibuya scramble intersection, the site of myriad acts of madness for the sake of social media footage, I try to broadcast that I am unimpressed. I confidently barrel forward in a direction that I hope is the correct one to show off that I am not a tourist or, worse, a content creator.  

In reality, this probably doesn’t work, and more often than not, I am indeed going in the wrong direction. 

But the point is that long-term foreign residents of Japan, including me, don’t like being lumped in with the growing crowds of foreign tourists. 

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