Why’s everybody going to Japan?

PJ Vogt (0:32)

Can you just introduce yourself?

Lisa (0:34)

Yes. My name is Lisa. I am living in Tokyo. I grew up in Tokyo. I was born here. But I sound like this because I went to school in the States as well.

I spent about four years in Philly and five or six years in Seattle.

PJ Vogt (0:49)

Got it. And so you wrote in with a question which I really enjoyed. Can you tell me what your question is and how you came to it?

Lisa (0:57)

Yes. My question was, why is every single person I know going to Japan or talking about going to Japan? And this question drives me crazy. I think that I tried to sound overly chill when I asked you this question, but actually it's not chill at all, PJ.

And I think to give you the full context, is it okay if I share you my screen? I have an Excel sheet that I want to show you.

PJ Vogt (1:22)

Yeah, absolutely.

Lisa (1:23)

So, the reason why it's not chill at all is this is a...

PJ Vogt (1:27)

What is this spreadsheet?

Lisa (1:29)

This is a spreadsheet of every single visitor that has visited me since November 2022

PJ Vogt (1:36)

This is insane.

SPEAKER_3 (1:39)

Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on.

PJ Vogt (1:40)

We really need to slow down here. You're scrolling through, there's so many tables and cells. How many people have visited you in total since November 2022?

Lisa (1:49)

If you count people who weren't my guests, but I kind of contributed to their experience for, that's 119 people.

PJ Vogt (1:58)

Oh my god, you have graphs. Wait, sorry, how many?

Lisa (2:02)

119 people have visited me.

PJ Vogt (2:04)

Since November 2022

Lisa (2:06)

That's right. And if you count only my personal guests, that's 96 guests.

PJ Vogt (2:10)

That's crazy.

Lisa (2:11)

If you average that out, that's actually one person every five days. That's 20% of my days since November 2022 That's been filled with someone visiting me from maybe the US or Europe.

PJ Vogt (2:24)

Both the fact of the frequency is wild and the exactness of your documentation is wild.

SPEAKER_4 (2:30)

Thank you.

PJ Vogt (2:32)

It's a guest visit calendar, November 22 to April 26 And it's every single day of your life and whether someone was visiting you.

Lisa (2:40)

Yes, that's exactly right.

And as you can see, the green cells are when I had a visitor. And especially, I think, around 2023 and 2025 This was taking over my life, PJ. Like, I was spending all of my free time either planning what I would do with people that are visiting or helping them figure out their itineraries for when they're in Japan, like, answering questions. Like, I love everyone that visited. Don't get me wrong. But I felt like I was spending so much time as, like, a personal tour guide.

PJ Vogt (3:12)

This is the picture, just the visual image, because it's on this calendar that you've shared. The days without visitors are white and the days with visitors are green. And just the sheer amount of green squares, it's a data visualization of an out of control problem. Yes. I'm so surprised by what I'm seeing. Did you know, like, I understand that part of the reason American tourism to Japan has spiked is just like economic.

But I feel like it is not just economic. Do you have an understanding as someone who has lived in both cultures, what happened to make Japan so cool to Americans?

Lisa (3:50)

Yeah. This is something I want to know too.

I originally thought that maybe at first it started out with the K-pop hype and then kind of a more interested in general in the Asia's. But I'm not sure that that accounts for such a huge spike in tourists in Japan. So, if you have the answer to this, I would love to know.

PJ Vogt (4:10)

Because it's funny, countries kind of get crushes on each other sometimes. Like one country will just decide another country represents sophistication or chicness or whatever.

I feel like I've been a part of and observed at the same time that wave happened from America to Japan, where all of a sudden it's Japanese clothes and Japanese food and Japanese pop culture is what the people I know seem more curious about, what definitely teenagers here seem more curious about. And it's like you want somebody who can say, to the extent that question is even answerable, like, here's what happened.

Lisa (4:43)

Yeah, that's exactly right.

PJ Vogt (4:49)

Okay. So this week, we take on Lisa's question, which I have to say appealed to me because it was a question I've had. People at our show have also had. Why, both in my real life and on social media, does it seem like so many people are going to Japan? It used to be rare. We had our theories at the show, but what we wanted were answers. This week, the real origin story of an international crush after this break.