Why Tourists Asking Directions in English Rubs Some in Japan the Wrong Way

Why This Topic Landed in Japan

The spark was a viral post about someone in Shibuya who kept being asked for directions in English, only to have tourists wave off any attempt to pull up a translation app — plus a secondhand claim that guidebooks tell visitors "Japanese people will try hard to speak English, give it a try," and one post's assertion that tourists are making sport of locals' kindness. All of it rests on individual posts and secondhand anecdotes — the guidebook's exact wording and the tourists' real intent are unknown. Even so, with inbound tourism surging and everyday encounters multiplying, it struck a nerve: "inside Japan you should open with Japanese," and "assuming English will simply work shows no respect." Many tied it to the contrast with how they themselves try to use the local language when traveling abroad. Others pushed back, suggesting visitors just expect a developed country to handle English, that a reply may simply have been hard to catch, and that the original story is thin, discrimination-baiting rumor.

Key Reaction Themes

• Irritation at a perceived lack of respect (most common) — Discomfort that visitors take English for granted without trying any Japanese, often summed up as "this is Japan."
• Responding case by case — A personal rule of helping those who look genuinely stuck or who try Japanese, while replying only in Japanese to those who act entitled.
• Skepticism and relativizing — A notable share argued visitors just expect English in a developed country, that a reply was merely hard to hear, or that the original story is baseless rumor that only the gullible believe.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Guidebook Claims and Tourists Asking Directions in English

A secondhand claim that guidebooks promise "Japanese people will try to speak English" feeds reactions to tourists who ask for directions in English.

Comments:

• "This is Japan — use Japanese!"
• "If they look like they're in trouble, I help. If they're grinning away, I ignore them."
• "I'm a returnee and can speak English without any trouble, but even when foreigners speak to me in English I reply in Japanese. For people who make an effort to speak Japanese I'll switch to English, but the ones who act like English is just a given irritate me, so I answer only in Japanese."
• "In the first place I pull out a map to explain, so I take out my phone anyway."
• "I'd vaguely thought that was normal, but come to think of it, it's like going abroad, asking for directions in Japanese, and waiting for an answer in Japanese — an act with no respect for the other person at all."
• "I'm sure some foreigners are making fun of us, but isn't there also an expectation that in a developed country like Japan, surely anyone can speak at least a little English? When you travel abroad, especially to tourist spots, if you just speak English you can get by in broken fashion well enough."
• "I casually asked an AI and this does seem to be true. By the way, I also asked about the malice part, and apparently it's only a fraction of them — but I'd at least want the respect of being asked in simple Japanese. What's the point of touring Japan otherwise?"
• "I'll teach them using Degawa-grade English." [Translator's note: Degawa Tetsuro is a comedian famous for gamely speaking wildly broken English.]
• "It's a nuisance, isn't it — treating Japanese people who are just living and working normally as disposable goods for tourism."
• "That's an arrogant game they're playing; testing people like that gets you disliked."
• "Come to think of it, someone who seemed Korean once asked me for directions through a translation app, and that person was perfectly decent."
• "Are they really all right being given directions in English that there's no way they actually understood?"
• "Google solves most of it, so people who don't use it are just being lazy."
• "Don't other countries have one too? The same saying as 'when in Rome.'"

Tourists Who Stop You From Using a Translation App

A viral post says tourists who speak English stop the listener from using a translation app, and commenters weigh a "worst-case reason" claim against simpler explanations.

Comments:

• "Another article with no evidence whatsoever."
• "You can just point and say 'that way' with your finger. That's what I do when a foreigner asks me for directions — body language is unbeatable."
• "Japanese people who fall for this kind of rumor that fuels discrimination against foreigners are seriously dim. There's no way a guidebook actually says that, you idiots."
• "Good to know — now I'll force the translation app on them out of sheer spite."
• "As for me, with foreigners who only ever use English I use only Japanese; the moment I decide it's hopeless, I cut it off right there."
• "Being made into a funny story beats being ignored, doesn't it — they might get a kick out of it, spend a bit more money in Japan, and maybe even come back to visit again."
• "They probably just think that pulling out a phone will get them reported, so they stop you to signal that they're not a suspicious person."
• "Honestly, everyone has a smartphone these days, so look it up yourself before asking people."