If there’s one thing we emphasize to all of our tour clients, it’s the importance of not being late for a restaurant reservation. And if you have to cancel, make sure to give the restaurant plenty of notice (or ask us to cancel it for you).
Unfortunately, not all visitors to Japan heed this rule. Restaurants and cafes are increasingly complaining about the negative impact that no-shows have on their business. A historic Japanese sweets shop in Ginza is the latest small business to raise the alarm.
Calls, texts go unanswered
The shop, Kobikichō Yoshiya, is a shinise founded in Ginza in 1922 (Taishō 11). For the past 103 years, it’s served wagashi (和菓子), or traditional Japanese sweets made from flour, rice cakes, red bean paste, and various plant-based ingredients that vary with the season.
The shop can only be visited by reservation. Some of those reservations are coming from Japan’s large influx of foreign tourists. It’s no surprise that travelers would flock to a store like Yoshiya to enjoy authentic tastes they can only find here.
Unfortunately, the tourist boom isn’t working out well for the store. In a recent post on the social media site X, the store’s third-generation owner complained: “Most foreign tourists with reservations are no-showing instead of coming to get their sweets. We can’t outright refuse them, so we really don’t know how to handle it.”
In an interview with J-Cast News, the owner said that between 2 and 3 groups of tourists no-show their orders every day.
Yoshiya says it fills up reservations quickly and often asks tourists without appointments who arrive in the morning to come back in the afternoon. However, it says, many never make it back to the store. Even when someone books by phone or via the messaging application LINE, the store said, most no-shows never pick up the phone or read their LINE message when the store tries to remind them about their reservation.
A growing problem
The post was met online with an outpouring of sympathy for the small, family-run store. Many commenters and travel experts posting on Yahoo! News recommended that the wagashi-ya adopt a reservation system, like TableCheck, that requires a credit card and charges for no-shows.
The store confirmed later that a TableCheck representative stopped by to talk. However, it also expressed doubt that it could afford such a system, saying that foreign visitors account for only around 10% of its total business.
The story went big in Japanese media, leading some to blast foreign travelers for their “bad manners.” That led Yoshiya to make a follow-up post in defense of foreign tourists:
“Please don’t forget that, as the article mentions, not every foreign tourist is canceling without notice. There are also perfectly well-mannered tourists. That said, many are no-shows.”
This isn’t the first time that tourists’ no-showing reservations have trended in Japan. One post on Chinese social media went viral after a restaurant reservation broker complained about a party of 11 who failed to appear at the Japanese restaurant he booked for them. “No wonder Japanese restaurants don’t welcome Chinese tourists,” the Chinese citizen lamented.
Some Japanese restaurants have responded to the behavior with controversial bans. One izakaya in Osaka was forced to close after posting a sign banning all Chinese tourists.
The takeaway from all this: Don’t be That Tourist™. If you make a reservation at a restaurant in Japan, keep it. Many small businesses are operating on razor-thin margins and can’t afford the loss.
Not confident enough in your Japanese abilities to handle reservations or sudden changes? Let our Japanese-fluent tour guides handle the work of securing and changing reservations for you – and reminding you of where you need to be and when.
Discover the “unseen” side of Japan
Japan is on everyone’s travel bucket list. Sadly, many end up going to the same places as everyone else. That can turn what could have been a fun, once-in-a-lifetime experience into an exhausting battle with crowds.
We started Unseen Japan Tours for the same reason we started Unseen Japan: To give people a unique glimpse into Japan they can’t get anywhere else. Let us create a custom itinerary of hard-to-find spots centered on your interests. We can also serve as your guides and interpreters, taking you to places that non-Japanese-speaking tourists usually can’t access.
Contact us below to get the ball rolling today!
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Sources
インバウンド客「無断キャンセル」続出、銀座の老舗和菓子屋が悲鳴 「本当に困っています」. J-Cast
