A rise in the antics of nuisance influencers in Japan, who are accused of duping train ticket collectors and pretending to be homeless to get cash, has caused consternation in the country as tourism number near their pre-pandemic levels.
A railway company in Japan is investigating allegations that a group of four popular foreign YouTubers had travelled long distances by train without paying. One of the suspected fare dodgers, known online as Fidias, posted a video to his 2.38 million subscribers over the weekend showing him and three others evading rail staff and blagging free food.
In one clip, he locks himself in the toilet of a bullet train and feigns illness when challenged by a ticket collector.
The Cypriot YouTuber, whose real name is Fidias Panayiotou, then boards another train, promising to pull the same trick again.
Another clip shows the self-described “professional mistake maker” pretending to be a hotel guest so he can eat breakfast there for free.
In a clip on X, formerly known as Twitter, he can be heard boasting that he had just talked his way into a five-star Japanese buffet at the hotel in Kyoto. “And we’re leaving the hotel without getting caught and with no problem.”
Other parts of the video show the group begging money from people to pay for tickets.
While Panayiotou’s followers applauded his audacity, the reaction from other social media users was overwhelmingly negative, with some accusing them of abusing Japan’s reputation for safety and hospitality.
“Another strange, annoying YouTuber from abroad emerged. In addition to this guy Fidias, the three others should be arrested,” one said.
Another wrote: “Japan is one of the safest countries in the world. I don’t want visitors to destroy the environment. If there are a lot of foreigners like this, we won’t want them anymore.”
Overcrowding at popular sight-seeing spots, as well as bad behaviour such as drinking on the street and littering, have prompted the government to draw up measures to reduce over-tourism, including steep rises in train fares and campaigns to attract visitors to lesser-known rural areas.
“In some areas and during certain periods, bad manners associated with inbound tourism has had an impact on the lives of local residents,” the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said recently.
Panayiotou’s clips emerged soon after an American live streamer known as Johnny Somali was arrested after he filmed himself breaking into a building site in Osaka.
The 23-year-old, whose real name is Ismael Ramsey Khalid, was charged with trespassing last month.
He and another American allegedly broke into a hotel that was nearing completion, media reports said. Video taken and posted by Khalid shows him repeatedly shouting “Fukushima” to construction workers who asked him to leave.
Other videos by Khalid have caused consternation and anger in Japan, including those in which he jokes about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was rearrested this month for filming inside a restaurant in Osaka without permission and playing loud music.
The train operator JR Kyushu said it would study the footage of Panayiotou and his fellow YouTubers before deciding whether to report them to police. “We are aware of the case and investigating the facts surrounding it,” a spokesperson for the firm told Agence France-Presse.
Panayiotou later posted an apology on his YouTube channel, claiming he had failed to acquaint himself with Japanese cultural norms before making the videos. “I apologize to the Japanese people if we made them feel bad,” he said. “From now on I am going to be make [sic] more research to the cultures we go to and try to prevent this from happening again.”
It was not clear when the videos were shot, or whether the four are still in Japan.
While there are vast numbers of popular YouTube accounts delving into myriad aspects of life in Japan, a few influencers have used their visits to gain online notoriety.
In 2017, the celebrity YouTuber Logan Paul caused widespread anger after posting a video showing the body of an apparent suicide victim.
The influencer, who has since turned to boxing and professional wrestling, was labelled “disrespectful” and “disgusting” after he joked with friends about discovering the body in Aokigahara forest, a notorious suicide spot at the base of Mount Fuji. The video received millions of views before it was removed.
Several Japanese online pranksters have also landed themselves in trouble in recent months.
Earlier this year, several people were arrested after they posted videos of themselves interfering with food in revolving sushi and other fast-food restaurants, forcing the industry to take emergency hygiene measures.
Ryoga Yoshino, 21, was given a suspended prison sentence this month over a video that showed him drinking straight from a shared soy sauce bottle and stealing sushi from plates as they passed by – one of several similar incidents the media dubbed “sushi terrorism”.
