Low Food Globalization Index Reflects Few Foreign Visitors in Kagurazaka but Highlights Its Authentic Japanese Charm
Low Food Globalization Index Reflects Few Foreign Visitors in Kagurazaka but Highlights Its Authentic Japanese Charm Measuring Foreign Visitor Impact in Kagurazaka Through a Food Globalization Index While overtourism is a significant concern in many popular tourist destinations in Japan, such as Kyoto and Hakone, it is rare to see foreign tourists in Shinjuku’s Kagurazaka. However, as there are no official statistics on the rate of foreign visitors to Kagurazaka, we could only rely on individual impressions that few foreigners visit the area. To address this, we created a globalization index focused on “food” and calculated its correlation with the rate of foreign visitors. According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “2023 Survey on Foreign Tourists’ Behavior by Country and Region,” the top activity for foreigners visiting Tokyo was “enjoying Japanese food” (93.3%), making a globalization index related to food a valid indicator for estimating foreign visitor rates in Kagurazaka. High Correlation Between Foreign Visitor Rates and Food Globalization Index in Tokyo’s Top Areas In the same survey, the top three places visited by foreign tourists were Shibuya (67.1%), Shinjuku-Okubo (57.4%), and Ginza (50.1%). We extracted data on the availability of “English menus” and “vegetarian menus” from Tabelog, Japan’s