The data behind Locals Japan
Almost every English-language guide to Japan is written by people who visited. This one is assembled from what Japanese people said to each other, in Japanese, in public comment sections — then translated. As of 2026-08-22, that is 102 comment sections read, 1,621 comments translated into English, and 1,008,598 likes standing behind them.
Every number on this page is counted from the published articles each time the site is rebuilt. Nothing here is typed in by hand, so it cannot drift from what is actually on the site.
The numbers
What is in it
The dataset covers 2026-07-16 to 2026-08-22. Each article is one Japanese video comment section, read in popularity order, with the most-supported opinions translated and the places people named indexed.
By verdict
- Locals say skip it16
- Locals say go17
- Locals are split22
Where the comments reached a clear collective answer, we record which way it went. 47 articles carry no verdict because they explain a procedure or custom rather than judge a place.
The most-supported testimony
The single most-upvoted comment from each article, ranked by likes. These are the lines that carried the widest agreement among Japanese viewers. Each links to the article it appears in, where you will find the original Japanese, and to the source video.
- 144,729 likes
“My only impression is that it still hasn't gone under…”
まだ潰れてないんだという印象しかない…
Read the article →Source video ↗"Amazed It Hasn't Gone Under": Japan's Verdict on Arashiyama's Most Notorious Tourist-Trap Cafe
- 241,720 likes
“If he's tearing into it this hard, the price must have been so far off the value that inside he was even angrier.”
ここまで酷評するってことは、価格と見合ってなさ過ぎて、内心もっと怒り心頭だったんだろうな。
Read the article →Source video ↗Is Shin-Okubo's Viral Queue Cafe Worth It? 41,720 Japanese Likes Say the Line Is the Product
- 330,739 likes
“The black-and-white photos broke me 😂”
白黒写真で耐えきれんかった笑
Read the article →Source video ↗Is Kakida, Tokyo's Famous Luxury All-You-Can-Eat Sushi, Worth It? Japanese Diners Say You're Paying for the Party, Not the Fish
- 428,150 likes
“It used to be a proper restaurant. Inbound demand must really be something, for them to throw away all the trust they'd built up and go all-in on the foreign-tourist business.”
昔はちゃんとした店だったのに積み上げてきた信頼を捨ててまで外国人向けビジネスに振り切るほどインバウンド需要ってすごいんだな
Read the article →Source video ↗Is Gyukatsu Motomura Worth It? Japanese Diners Mourn the Chain That Went All-In on Tourists
- 524,152 likes
“The fact that "out of the question" is the entire review is genuinely killing me.”
「問題外」しか言うことないのほんとに笑う
Read the article →Source video ↗The Best Acai Bowl in Harajuku, Ranked by Japan's Bluntest Reviewer — the Influencer Shop Scored "Out of the Question"
- 620,198 likes
“That line at the end — “I hate the stance that any quality is good enough as long as the customer's a foreigner” — I really feel that. I hate it too.”
最後の「海外の人ならどんな品質で出しても良いだろうっていうスタンスが嫌い」って言うところ、本当に分かる私も嫌い
Read the article →Source video ↗“Nishiki Market Has Become a Place for Foreigners”: What Japanese Visitors Really Say About Kyoto's Kitchen
- 713,133 likes
“It's gorgeous, it's delicious enough for THIS guy to rate it highly… and it costs THAT little?!”
めっちゃ綺麗でこの人が高評価する美味しさなのにこのお値段なの...！！
Read the article →Source video ↗Zen Kashoin: The Kyoto Cafe Japan's Harshest Dessert Reviewer Couldn't Fault
- 812,743 likes
“Under ¥2,000 for this is basically a bug.”
これで2000円切るのバグすぎる
Read the article →Source video ↗Is Hikiniku to Come Worth the Queue? Japan's Bluntest Food Reviewer Finally Cracked — and Japanese Diners Piled On
- 911,376 likes
“He's actually praising stuff this time.”
今回は結構褒めてるな
Read the article →Source video ↗Amerikamura Street Food: Japan's Harshest Food Reviewer Approved — Osaka Regulars Explain Why "Bad Restaurants Don't Survive Here"
- 1010,863 likes
“A lot of it is for the atmosphere, so I can forgive it.”
雰囲気のためみたいなとこあるから私は許せる
Read the article →Source video ↗Is USJ Food Worth It? 10,863 Likes Say It's "the Price of the Atmosphere" — and Japanese Fans Name What's Actually Good
How it is made
- 1.We find Japanese-language videos where the comments carry real local knowledge — restaurant reviews, honest travel reports, explanations of local custom — and pull the comments through the YouTube API.
- 2.We read the comments in popularity order, typically the top 115 on a video, and select the ones that carry the most agreement or say something the English-language internet does not.
- 3.We translate each selected comment and publish it beside the Japanese original with its real like count, so any reader can check the translation against the source.
- 4.We index every real place a commenter named, and link back to the original video on every article. We do not scrape Google Maps or Tabelog reviews, and we never invent or paraphrase a comment.
What this data cannot tell you
Stated plainly, because the numbers are only useful if you know what they are not.
- YouTube commenters are not a representative sample of Japan. They skew towards people who watch travel and food videos and feel strongly enough to type. Treat this as well-evidenced public sentiment, not polling.
- We read the most-liked comments, not all of them. The source videos hold 104,696 comments in total; we have read 11,152. Popularity ordering means we see the opinions that got agreement, and under-see the quiet ones.
- A like count measures agreement among people who watched that video. It is not a measure of what the general public thinks, and the counts keep moving after we read them.
- Comments are a snapshot. Prices, opening hours, closures and rules change after they are posted, which is why we date what we publish and link out rather than assert current facts.
How to cite this
You are welcome to quote these numbers, the translations and the comments in reporting, research or teaching. No permission needed and no fee. We ask one thing: link to the article the quote came from, so your readers can see the Japanese original and the source video for themselves.
Locals Japan, “Japan Travel Data: What Japanese Locals Actually Say”, locals-japan.com, accessed 2026-08-22.
Need something we have not published?
If you are working on a story about Japanese tourism, overtourism or local sentiment and need a figure, a city or a theme that is not here, ask. Locals Japan is edited from Tokyo by someone who reads Japanese and can go back to the source comment sections for a specific question.
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