Instagram-obsessed "paparazzi" tourists are harassing Kyoto's geishas, locals claim. Tourist access to the Gion geisha district is now being restricted.

Geishas in impeccable hairstyles, white makeup and colorful kimonos are being disturbed – sometimes rudely – by tourists who want to take selfies, claim locals in the geisha district of Gion.

One geisha apprentice had her kimono torn and another had a cigarette butt inside her collar, according to the local housing council, which emphasizes that the district is not an amusement park.

Now the city of Kyoto will put up signs prohibiting tourists from entering privately owned alleys in Gion.

"We don't want to do this, but we are desperate," says local politician Isokazu Ota, who calls the tourists crowding around the geishas "paparazzi.".

Tourism to Japan has boomed since the coronavirus pandemic, and measures are being taken elsewhere in the country, including a fee for hikers taking the most popular route up Mount Fuji this summer.

Source: TT-AFP