Chinese offense at guide to etiquette
Print Edition
A Japanese tourism board has called on foreign tourists to refrain from public “belching or flatulence” in an etiquette guide said to have been hastily rewritten following complaints from a Chinese resident.
The Hokkaido Tourism Organization, which represents Japan’s northern-most island, published a downloadable brochure on its website, with instructions on everything from public bathing to using a Japanese toilet.
It dedicated an entire section to protocol for avoiding bodily functions.
“Japanese etiquette is based on avoiding causing discomfort or nuisance to others,” the guide points out. “Accordingly, Japanese will avoid bodily functions such as belching or flatulence in public entirely, or perform bodily functions as discreetly as possible.”
However, “Common Sense When Traveling in Hokkaido” upset a Chinese resident who claimed the diagrams featuring examples of bad behavior were offensive, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
The complaint prompted a new, foreigner-friendly version with softer explanations of Japanese customs.
In the updated guide available in Chinese and English, gone are the large “X”-marks next to cartoon illustrations of tourists committing, from a Japanese perspective, embarrassing gaffes, such as putting used toilet paper into the waste bin — the general custom in China — instead of flushing it away.
According to The Japan Times newspaper, the original booklet published last August was targeted at Chinese tourists, including a reminder not to open products before buying them when shopping.
China has said it will monitor the behavior of unruly tourists abroad and punish them on their return home after being shamed by a string of well-publicized incidents in recent years.
Research by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch found that more than 100 million Chinese tourists went abroad in 2014, spending some US$164 billion.
But reports of disruptive behavior have tarnished their reputation, such as passengers scalding a flight attendant with hot water and noodles or a holidaymaker fined in Thailand for washing her feet in the wash basin of a public toilet.
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