The topic of foreign tourism has been the zeitgeist recently now that COVID travel restrictions have been lifted. While the central government is doing all it can to increase tourism, local governments have complained about the burden these tourists supposedly cause. The Mainichi reports that Kumamoto is jumping on the tax-the-foreigners bandwagon: “The city of Kumamoto will introduce an accommodation tax in early 2026 to raise funds in part to combat the negative effects of foreign tourism, Mayor Kazufumi Onishi stated recently” which will apparently be “a few hundred yen per person per night.” Seems kind of xenophobic to me: tourism infrastructure is burdened by Japanese tourists equally. Pictured: a bureaucrat twists logic. English-language article at the link. - William