One could argue that the tourism industry was already beyond healthy, that the impact on English skills is negligible and that it hurts others, such as business people having problems do travel because hotels have doubled or trippeled their prices.
English skills put hospitality staff in a better position to serve guests, and ultimately reduce the burden/friction on the operators themselves.
As for business travel, the price of business hotels in Japan overall has not dramatically increased—certainly not beyond what corporate budgets can afford—and much of business travel is to cities that are not of particular interest to tourists. Staying outside the city and commuting by train is also an option.
I do live in Japan. Looking at APA Hotel in Ginza I see prices in the 10-20,000 JPY range ($66-$133) per night it just doesn’t feel insanely high. And thats smack in the middle of a major business/tourist area.
Well yeah, that doesn't look high in dollars for US people earning a lot, sure.
But I never said that it looks high, I said that it increased. You could easily find APAs for about 5000 JPY not long ago. And don't forget that we currently have summer, so much less tourists.
Its not clear how much of the increase is due to tourist demand vs. global price inflation in general. 5000 yen is now $33. Thats an unthinkably low price in the US unless you are going for bedbugs and a piss-stained mattress…
Prices in Japan seem to be de-coupling from the rest of the world… e.g. the “Japanese only” language-locked Nintendo Switch 2
It is very clear if you compare hotel prices to renting an apartment, which have almost been stagnant over the last 1-2 years (before they were rising quite a bit of course). At least very from 100%+ increases that I can see for hotels everywhere in Tokyo, including most of greater Tokyo area.
