As we often write in this blog, whenever a new technology emerges, many people initially resist it. This isn’t unique to Japan—it happens all over the world.
When personal computers first appeared, people said, “That’s not for me.” When the internet arrived, they said, “I’m not interested.” When smartphones came out, they said, “I don’t need that.” And now, we’re hearing the same kind of reaction toward AI.
The same pattern applies to anything that feels foreign. This has existed in Japan since the Edo period.
Whenever new things—or people—arrive from abroad, there are always two sides: those who welcome them and those who resist simply because they’re foreign.
Today, the number of international visitors to Japan has grown at an incredible pace. In 2014, about 13.4 million people entered Japan. In 2024, that number reached 36.8 million, nearly tripling in just ten years. If we exclude the pandemic years, it’s clear that this growth has been astonishingly rapid.
Alongside this rise, we also hear voices saying things like “There are too many foreigners,” “They don’t follow manners,” or “This is Japan.” These reactions focus only on the negatives and come from a stereotypical point of view. But in truth, this isn’t unusual—it’s the same as what people in the Edo period felt when foreign influences first arrived. History, as always, repeats itself.
Just like in the earlier examples, there will always be people who struggle to adapt to sudden change—or react strongly against it. Every era has them.
