Can Japan's "omotenashi" culture survive overtourism and labour shortages?

I have recently returned from a holiday in Japan. Since my first visit many years ago, I have always been impressed at the Japanese concept of “omotenashi”, which has a variety of translations, but essentially boils down to treating customers or guests with genuine warmth and sincerity. And it manifests itself in any number of subtle ways across the whole society.

If you’re a foreigner, it will be the fact that a spoon or fork is quietly placed besides your chopsticks, should you prefer to use them. It will be the gentle bow you receive when leaving a business. Or (to my recent amazement) it will be the airport desk worker you spoke to who puts a luggage tag on your bags through to your home country – and when you pick up the bag, you realise that she has written “Thank you always – have a nice flight!” on the luggage tag.

There are other places that offer excellent service – Singapore comes to mind – but omotenashi sits in another league altogether.  It reflects other parts of Japanese culture; the attention to detail, the balance and composition between different aspects of an offering, whether service-related or artistic, the focus upon simplicity and the thought and effort put into what would make things easier or more pleasant for the intended audience.

Part of what allows this to happen is the historical structure of the Japanese economy. The idea of jobs for life meant that many firms were (and remain) overstaffed relative to their Western counterparts. It also means that many Japanese people, especially in retailing, spend long periods standing around doing literally nothing. From one perspective, it could be argued that this is a colossal waste of both human time and human potential.

But it’s this overstaffing, in part, which is what allows one of these souvenir shop workers to spend ten minutes beautifully wrapping even the smallest purchase made, or spending 20 minutes assisting a customer to choose a gift for a loved one. It’s why most accommodation is spotlessly clean, because this army of staff is at work behind the scenes to make it happen.

And yet, with its falling population, I wonder if this treasured cultural behaviour can be sustained. I have read about the population changes, but it’s quite another thing to see what that means with your own eyes. We visited a city of roughly 130,000 people on a Friday, and went to the shopping arcade closest to the main train station. It was around 1pm in the afternoon, and the arcade was like a ghost town….80% of the shop fronts were closed, never to open again. Those people we did see around were all over 60 years of age. It was only slightly busier that night, and the following day.

By contrast to that, we also visited Osaka’s famous shopping street called Shinsaibashi. It’s suffering from overtourism, with huge crowds heaving along its length. It’s always been busy, but last time I visited, it was full of Japanese tourists. Now it’s very mixed, although there are large groups of Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese visitors. This is, of course, a bonanza for shop owners…but they have changed too. As we went along, we heard a lot of Chinese being called out from the shop fronts, aimed at those large tour groups. It appears that the previous generations of Japanese owners have retired, and there are perhaps not many younger Japanese wanting to take these places over.

Another big shock was the number of times we entered a combini (convenience store – think 7/11 in a Western context) and were served by someone from South Asia or Cambodia. These people were polite, and did their best to speak to us in Japanese – but there was no sense of omotenashi to their service. I’m not saying anything bad; these people are filling jobs that would otherwise go begging – but it hints at broader issues.

Japanese real wages have been falling for a long time now, as shown by the graph below[1]:

Graph sourced on 25 June 2024 from https://adjusted-for-inflation.com/japan-average-wages/

I’m not going to get into the why here, just point out that it’s happening. Many young people can only find part-time work, but the aging population means that there are now vacancies across many sectors. Understandably, those people locked out of stable, permanent employment, are motivated to find something that pays better than minimum wage, which is very low in Japan relative to other developed nations[1]. And young Japanese people with get up and go are doing just that, with increasing numbers looking to work overseas[2]. Then there is the impact of social media. While Japan does have its own sub-cultures, they are definitely aware of what is going on elsewhere around the world. And this extends to a growing awareness of what life is like elsewhere.

So, there’s both push and pull going on. What I suspect is happening on a larger scale is that those Japanese people who are well-connected (and more extroverted) are finding their way to better jobs, or looking to set up their own businesses. Sadly, for many of those people looking to change jobs, there are not necessarily any career ladders in place, and higher education is more or less out of reach. The weakness of the yen is certainly not helping people to feel confident about the future either, as it is causing the cost of imported goods to rise.

How does all of this relate to omotenashi? Well, as labour shortages bite, many of the firms established in the post-war years will simply close for lack of buyers. Those firms that can raise wages will do so, and they’ll have their pick of the Japanese workforce. Like everywhere else, there is a pecking order, and the locals will avoid not only the traditional “3D”[3] jobs, but increasingly, they’ll vacate the hospitality and retail sectors as well, in search of better wages and positions that offer some hope of future progress.

I don’t think that this change will happen quickly; after all, Japanese people are justifiably proud of this behaviour. But it’s going to be increasingly hard to offer this type of care if customer-facing industries are starved of local staff who have grown up with the concept as part of everyday life. The hordes of noisy tourists will barely notice its absence in many cases, and will be happy to get the same type of service that they get back home.

Instead, I think that omotenashi as we currently know it will gradually go upmarket for those customers willing to pay for it. At present, that includes many of the foreign tourists benefitting from the weak yen – in future, I suspect that it will narrow down.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

[1] https://adjusted-for-inflation.com/japan-average-wages/
[2] https://thediplomat.com/2022/01/solving-japans-wage-stagnation-syndrome/
[3] https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/02/09/japanese-workers-are-seeking-higher-wages-overseas
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty%2C_dangerous_and_demeaning