Podcast Summary: Tourism and a Kyoto in Flux: A Conversation with Dr. Chiara Rita Napolitano

Podcast: New Books Network / Nordic Asia Podcast
Host: Sivre Olsson
Guest: Dr. Chiara Rita Napolitano, JSPS Fellow at Kyoto University
Date: December 22, 2025

Overview

This episode dives deep into the effects of tourism—particularly overtourism—on Kyoto's traditional houses (machiya and nagaya) and local communities. Building on Dr. Napolitano’s fieldwork and scholarship, the discussion untangles how tourism transforms both the built environment and everyday life, and how notions like "authenticity" are commodified and contested. The episode explores practical impacts on architectural conservation, neighborhood dynamics, local identity, and the socio-economic fabric of Kyoto, providing a nuanced perspective on a city in flux.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Lens of Research: Tourism and Traditional Housing

• Dr. Napolitano’s research traces how tourism, especially overtourism, has radically transformed Kyoto’s traditional machiya (townhouses) and nagaya (row houses), both architecturally and socially.
• Many machiya and nagaya have been repurposed into lodging for tourists, impacting local identity and the ‘culture of everyday life’ (seikatsubunka).
• The sense of belonging and community is tied to the built environment, which, when altered for tourism, disrupts this relationship.
  • Quote: “When the built environment changes so drastically and so abruptly, this kind of sense of belonging gets disrupted as well.” (Napolitano, 02:40)

2. The Commodification of “Authenticity”

• Machiya and nagaya are valued for offering an “authentic Japanese experience” to tourists, often packaged with add-ons like tea ceremonies or kimono dressings.
• Authenticity, Dr. Napolitano argues, becomes an “asset” that can be marketed and sold, rather than a fixed cultural truth.
  • Quote: “Authenticity is an asset. So basically, authenticity is something that can be valued and can be sold.” (Napolitano, 04:31)
  • The image of tradition, she notes, is “half reality, but half invention.” (Napolitano, 03:54)

3. Economic and Social Impact: Who Benefits?

• Stringent regulations in central Kyoto restrict new construction, incentivizing the conversion of existing, often empty, houses (akiya) into tourist lodgings.
• However, the economic benefits to local Japanese communities are limited, especially when properties are acquired by foreign enterprises catering primarily to specific inbound markets.
  • Quote: “There is no benefit for Japanese people and Japanese society at all because they are rented by foreign people. They are bought by foreign people. ...Japanese society does not benefit at all from their usage.” (Napolitano, 07:05)
• The consequence is a “foreign space in every sense,” leading to the loss of local connection and economic leakage.
  • Quote: “A piece of your landscape that belonged to your community now is something else. ...It becomes a foreign space in every sense.” (Napolitano, 08:19)

4. The Stage and Performance of Tradition

• Tourism produces a “stage, a performance of everyday life,” with residential neighborhoods being transformed into sites for visitor consumption, often at odds with the lived reality of local residents.
  • Quote: “It’s a stage, a performance of everyday life once when, while the neighbors are still living, well, a different everyday life.” (Olsson, 09:14)

5. Architectural Adaptation

• To accommodate tourists, these homes undergo significant physical changes: improved sound and thermal insulation, altered floor layouts, and the loss of traditional features.
• The traditional gradation between public and private space, inherent in machiya, is replaced with rigid separations demanded by foreign guests.
  • Quote: “All this special sensibility... just gets lost. There is always something that gets lost when things change—which is not in itself a bad thing... Otherwise they stop being houses. They become museums.” (Napolitano, 12:10)

6. Policy and Local Government Response

• The Kyoto municipality encouraged the adaptation of empty homes into tourist lodgings to address the problem of akiya (vacant houses), even providing financial assistance.
• However, the 2017 Minpaku Act introduced stricter regulations: “you have to have a manager living in the premises or in no more than 10 minutes by walk, in order to be able to mediate between the tourists, the guests and the community.” (Napolitano, 16:27)
• Residents report that tourism-driven redevelopment often does not solve the akiya problem, as many lodgings are created by purchasing inhabited houses rather than renovating abandoned ones.

7. Community Reactions and Frictions

• Locals express frustration over issues such as noise, garbage, increased rents, and a sense of displacement.
  • Quote: “Families that were living there for years and decades could not afford anymore to live in the school district and had to move away.” (Napolitano, 17:37)
• Informal neighborhood pacts or grassroots agreements have emerged to prevent sales to tourism agents, revealing local resistance and attempts to protect community integrity.
  • Quote: “People residing in the roji, in Rokuhara, they had made an informal pact amongst themselves not to rent or to sell to tourism agents. ...I found very fascinating.” (Napolitano, 26:39)

8. The Urban Fabric and Vulnerability

• Kyoto’s historical urban morphology—dense, narrow alleyways (roji/fukuro roji)—was shaped by a need for security but now makes these neighborhoods structurally and socially vulnerable to disruption from tourism.
• The introduction of tourist lodgings interrupts established, often unspoken, neighborhood practices (such as garbage collection and cleaning routines).
  • Quote: “These environments are like a bubble, you know, and it takes very little to burst the bubble. They are especially vulnerable.” (Napolitano, 26:10)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Tourists just consume the place where they go and do not really engage with the community in a local base.” — Napolitano, 09:01
• “Otherwise these houses just become museums. And it’s another way of them to die, basically.” — Napolitano, 12:57
• “Empty houses are not just a problem from an aesthetic point of view. It’s also a problem for safety, because they are wooden houses often...if a fire were to spread.” — Napolitano, 15:08
• “If the tourist is really a solution to the problem of vacant houses, I don’t know.” — Napolitano, 20:47

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:12] — Introduction to topic: Tourism and machiya/nagaya in Kyoto
• [03:30] — The built environment as community landscape
• [04:27] — The marketization of authenticity
• [07:05] — Foreign ownership and community economic impact
• [09:14] — Tourism as staged performance versus local everyday life
• [10:30] — Architectural changes to accommodate tourists
• [13:30] — On preservation versus living tradition
• [15:08] — Safety concerns and government policy on akiya
• [16:27] — The Minpaku Act and regulation
• [17:37] — Community displacement and property value shifts
• [22:13] — Kyoto’s geographic and historical urban vulnerability
• [25:54] — Disruption of neighborhood practices (kadoki)
• [26:39] — Grassroots resistance to overtourism
• [28:01] — Wrap-up and final thoughts

Final Takeaways

Dr. Napolitano’s commentary paints a complex portrait of Kyoto at a crossroads: the drive to preserve architectural heritage clashes with commercial pressures and evolving lifestyles, while local communities strive to maintain a sense of place and continuity. Overtourism, rather than providing a simple solution to demographic and economic challenges, reveals and sometimes exacerbates underlying vulnerabilities within Kyoto’s unique urban fabric.

For more on Dr. Napolitano’s research and related links, see the episode blurb.