Japan’s cherry blossom season sells itself. Whimsical, pale pink trees, majestic Mount Fuji providing the backdrop, a pagoda in frame, and an entire internet trained to believe that getting a photo of this glorious nature scene is a bucket-list item. Well, tourists have done it again. They ruined a cool thing.
Fujiyoshida, a city near Mount Fuji, has decided that the annual festival part is over. Officials announced Arakurayama Sengen Park won’t host its cherry blossom festival this year, after what they describe as a steady climb in disruptive tourist behavior. The festival has run for about a decade, and local officials say springtime crowds can hit more than 10,000 visitors a day, with around 200,000 people coming through during the season.
Mayor Shigeru Horiuchi didn’t mince words. “Behind [Mount Fuji’s] beautiful landscape is the reality that the quiet lives of citizens are threatened. We have a strong sense of crisis,” he said in a statement, as reported by The Japan Times. He added, “To protect the dignity and living environment of our citizens, we have decided to bring the curtain down on the 10-year-old festival.”
The city’s complaints point to basic quality-of-life issues. Officials cited chronic traffic jams, cigarette butts, trespassing, and littering. They also described tourists “opening private home doors without permission to use the restroom” and “defecating in private yards and raising a fuss when residents pointed this out,” as reported by Kyodo News.
Parents have their own reasons to be fed up. Kyodo reported concerns about kids getting pushed aside on school routes because tourists pack the sidewalks. That detail shows what this actually does to daily life. People live here. They’re trying to get to work, get their kids to school, and exist without their streets becoming an all-day shoot location.
Japan has been seeing record tourism numbers, with 2025 reportedly hitting about 42.7 million visitors, following a record-setting 2024, according to The Japan Times. A weak yen and viral travel content have helped pour gasoline on any location with a perfect view.
Canceling the festival won’t stop the blossoms from blooming, and it won’t stop people from showing up. City officials have acknowledged the park will likely stay crowded anyway. So the plan now looks like crowd management. More security, temporary parking, and portable toilets.
It’s a pretty sharp message, though. If a town has to cancel its own signature event because visitors can’t act right, we have a problem.
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