You must be joking…
The Hokkaido Tourism Organisation has called for tourists to refrain from farting and burping in public in an etiquette guide that was published.
The downloadable brochure has polite instructions on everything from public bathing to using a Japanese toilet. It even has an entire section dedicated to protocol for bodily functions like “belching or flatulence”. The guide highlights, “Japanese etiquette is based on avoiding causing discomfort or nuisance to others.”
“Accordingly, Japanese will avoid bodily functions such as belching or flatulence in public entirely, or perform bodily functions as discreetly as possible.”
Naturally, this angered people, especially a Chinese resident, who claimed that the diagrams pointing out bad tourist behaviours were offensive. It prompted a new version with more gentle explanations of Japanese customs. Now, there’s an updated guide in Chinese and English.
According to a Japanese publication, the original booklet was targeted at Chinese tourists, including a reminder not to open products before paying for them when shopping.
To follow up, China has said it will monitor the behaviours of their citizens abroad and punish them on their return home. But really, with over 1 billion citizens, do you really think they’d be able to monitor the number of people going abroad? -_-
