JAPAN AND THE ART OF YOUTUBE CLICKBAIT

Dispatches From The Influencer Apocalypse

Image: Getty Images

Before you reach for your pitchforks (or worse, your GoPro), let me preface this: the following article is served with a generous side of sarcasm and a dash of well-intentioned grumbling. If you've ever silently screamed at a 'Japan reaction' video, you're in good company. If you are a 'Japan reaction' video, well, this one's for you too – perhaps with a cup of tea, and an open mind.

I never thought I'd have to say this, but if one more well-meaning person outside of Japan forwards me a YouTube video titled something like “OMG Japan Is So Weird (And I’m Totally Moving There)”, I am going to retreat to a cabin in Hokkaido, lob my smartphone into one of the many beautiful lakes there, and take up meditation. We are no longer on the slippery slope—we have enthusiastically swan-dived into the gorge of foreign tourist influencer absurdity.

Yes, the Japan Travel Vlog Industrial Complex has reached critical mass. Armed with shaky GoPros, half-charged phones, Google Translate, and the cultural sensitivity of a caffeinated rhino, an army of digital wanderers is now flooding the internet with glossy cinematic musings that explain “What Japanese People Are Really Like”—often mere hours after clearing customs at Haneda.

Okay, I’ve been in Japan for decades. I’ve advised companies, worked with government agencies, navigated layers of bureaucracy, and done more than my fair share of karaoke diplomacy. So I might have a little perspective on some of this. You can imagine my delight when a wide-eyed “digital nomad” with a two-week JR Pass and a ramen-stained hoodie begins explaining Japan’s aging society, corporate culture, and Buddhist metaphysics from the insightful vantage point of a seat upstairs at Shibuya Starbucks.

Welcome to the “I Just Got Off the Plane” School of Japanism

You know the format by now. The video opens with dramatic drone footage over Shibuya Crossing. Our protagonist appears, mouth agape, declaring something profound like, “Wow, it’s, like, so clean here.” (Yes, Tokyo does in fact have municipal waste management. Shocking.) Then, cue the breathless voiceover: “Japan is a land of contrasts. It’s futuristic... yet traditional. High-tech... yet zen.”

Next comes the obligatory konbini segment. “Guys, look at this CRAZY convenience store food!” they shout, holding up a rice ball as if they’ve discovered Atlantis wrapped in seaweed. What follows is a completely unhinged attempt to “explain” Japanese culture—based on a combination of anime, Lost in Translation, and a fever dream about a previous life as a Japanese person.

Most speak exactly three words of badly-pronounced Japanese: konnichiwa, sumimasen, and sushi. Reading? Impossible. Context? Nonexistent. But this doesn’t stop them from confidently addressing Japan’s immigration policy, family structure, and work-life balance with the appropriate authoritative swagger.

The Clickbait Algorithm: Where Nuance Goes to Die

Let’s not be coy about the real driver behind all this: the soulless, dopamine-hungry machine that is the YouTube algorithm. It rewards dramatic thumbnails, unearned confidence, and gross generalisations.

“Is Japan a Dystopian Tech Prison?” gets ten times the engagement of “A Thoughtful Exploration of Demographic Trends and Urban Policy in Post-Bubble Japan.” Because why promote thoughtful discourse when you can monetise cultural reductionism and maybe get a free bento in the process?

We now have entire genres of this nonsense:

• “Only in Japan!” videos: Featuring capsule hotels, robot cafés, and elderly men in Pikachu suits—as if these are standard national phenomena and not the oddities locals mostly ignore.

• “Japanese People React” content: Where some poor university student is ambushed on the street and asked their opinion on peanut butter sandwiches or Trump.

• “Culture Shock!!!” diaries: “Did you know no one talks on the train here???” Yes. We all know and frankly, it’s wonderful. They also do not put their dirty shoes or feet on the seats.

  

The underlying problem? These videos aren’t about Japan. They’re about the vlogger reacting to Japan—filtered through their own culture, bias, and limited experience. Japan becomes a set, a prop, a neatly packaged exotic fantasy to be consumed by an algorithm and bled out into the feeds of the equally uninitiated.

The Rise of the Freebie Freeloaders

The tragicomic epidemic of “influencers” begging for free stuff is alarming.

“Hey, I’m a travel creator with 3,000 subscribers and a deep passion for miso soup. Can I get a free stay at your ryokan in exchange for ‘exposure’?”

These emails go to small family-run businesses who’ve survived COVID, earthquakes, and the near-impossible gauntlet of Japanese licensing laws. Now they must endure the indignity of hosting someone who will repay them by mispronouncing onsen and uploading a video titled “I Got Naked with Strangers in Japan!”

There is a word for this: tacky. It’s the cultural equivalent of trying to barter your Instagram handle for a free pint in a funeral home.

Of course, there are genuinely good creators—people who speak the language, live in the culture, and put in the work. But they’re not trending. They’re too busy asking questions, checking facts, and building trust. In the attention economy, humility is bad for business.

Culture Is Not a Backdrop for Your Brand

What’s most galling is not the ignorance. It’s the performative confidence. The gall of arriving in Japan, barely aware of how to properly use chopsticks without causing an international incident, and then declaring yourself a cultural ambassador to the world.

Imagine someone spending 48 hours in your hometown, misunderstanding a conversation at a petrol station, getting yelled at by a local, and then telling the entire internet what your society is “really like.” That’s the level of insight we’re working with here.

These videos aren’t made for Japanese people. They’re made about Japanese people, for an audience that will never have to deal with the consequences of misunderstanding, exoticisation, or plain misinformation. Culture becomes content. Context becomes collateral damage. Authenticity? An inconvenience.

Japan Deserves More Than a Selfie Stick

Japan is so much richer—and messier—than the sanitised travel-brochure version floating around on YouTube. This is a country confronting serious demographic challenges, rural depopulation, energy insecurity, technological transformation, and questions of national identity that go far deeper than “Why are Japanese people so polite?”

But you won’t hear any of that in a vlog about 7 Must-Try Japanese Snacks That Will BLOW YOUR MIND.

Japan doesn’t need to be “explained” by tourists. It needs to be understood and respected. That requires listening. It requires learning. It requires being wrong, often—and then having the grace to admit it.

It also requires putting down the camera every now and then and picking up something radical: a book.

A Final Impolite Suggestion

So here’s my message to the aspiring YouTuber planning their next “What They Don’t Tell You About Japan” epic:

Before you press record, ask yourself three simple questions:

1. Do I actually understand what I’m about to talk about?

2. Would I say this in front of the people I’m claiming to explain?

3. Am I adding insight—or just noise?

If the answer to any of those is “no,” perhaps, just perhaps, consider sitting this one out. Or at the very least, don’t email an 84-year-old innkeeper asking for a free tatami room and a tasting menu.

The truth is, Japan doesn’t need to be "made" interesting. It already is. But understanding it demands more than a camera and a plane ticket. It demands humility, effort, and the radical act of shutting up and paying attention.

And to prove my point, I can guaratee you this post will get far more hits than any of my other business information oriented articles!