Society
Tourist Rental-Car Crashes Feed Japan's Unease Over Foreigners
Reports of a sharp regional rise in rental-car crashes by foreign tourists — unfamiliar with left-side driving, right-hand drive, and Japanese signage — drove demands to end no-test recognition of international licenses. Bundled with a fight over a soba chain's reliance on foreign labor and a wave of closing unmanned farm stands, it hardened into a broader anxiety that a society long run on good faith is changing. The nationwide generalization and the single 'foreigners broke the trust society' storyline, though, rest on thin evidence.