Reactions to the Japanese tourist rip-off in Italy

published by ANBM on Sun, 08/09/2009 - 00:57

Japanese tourists in Rome are said to have diminished in the last period. Not only the economic crisis but also the bad service that Italian restaurants and hotels provide to the tourists as well as the fear to have their wallet or mobile phone ripped off, have made the Japanese choose other safer destinations.

Just of few weeks ago the news (see Rome restaurant in hot soup for 700-euro lunch tab) that a Japanese couple was cheated by a famous restaurant in the center of Rome who presented them a 700 euro bill for an ordinary lunch. Japanese people, though, have started to be fed up with being considered the well-off, easily-cheatable tourist to milk.

Moshimoshi, the Japanese manager of the B&B in Rome that hosted the unlucky couple, explains what happened and titles the post “There is no way I can tolerate it” (絶対に許せない！！).

今日警察に行ってきました。というのも最近B&Bのお客様が被害にあわれて、その再確認に行ってまいりました。
その被害とは、簡単に説明すると二人でランチを食べたら700ユーロ、（約10万円）という法外な値段をぼったくられた、という被害です。

Today I went to the police.
Some of my customers recently were victims of a rip off and I went there for verification.
To explain in simple words what the fraud consisted of, the two were exaggeratedly overcharged and made pay 700 Euro (100.000 Yen) for a lunch.

信じられます？700ユーロですよ！！
許せない！！という事で警察に行き調書をとりました。
しかもそのレストランはガイドブックにのっており、「日本語のメニューがあり、良心的な値段！！」なんて書いてあります。
確かにそのお客様は、メニューも見ずにおまかせで料理を持ってきてもらったそうです。
でもそれにしても700ユーロって・・・・
イタリア人みんなに言われました「どうして払ってしまったんだ？」と。でも想像してください、食べたのに払わずにレストランの外に出たりできますか？私自身は文句を言うにしても、最終的に払わずに外に出たりできないと思います。

Can you believe it? 700 Euro!!!
I can't tolerate it! So I went to the police to draw up a report. What's more, that restaurant is on the guidebook with the commenting words ‘Japanese menu included, fair prices!'. It's true that those customers didn't check the menu and asked to bring them what the restaurant suggested but 700 euro…
Italian people told me “Why did they pay?”
But try to imagine, could you walk off a restaurant without paying what you ate? Also if I had personally complained, eventually I would haven't been able to go away without paying.

私がそう言うとイタリア人は口をそろえて「だから日本人はぼられるんだ！！」
と言います。でもそんな事が許されていいのでしょうか？
「黙っているから、だましてもいい」なんて国があっていいのでしょうか？私は断じて戦います。そんな事が許されていいと全く思いません。今日私を呼び出した警察も、「観光客のイタリアの思い出がそんなに醜いものになるのは一イタリア人として許せない！！彼らはイタリアの恥だ！！」とそのレストランを厳しく罰する事を誓ってくれました。

And so what they told me is “That's why Japanese people get ripped off!!”
But, can you tolerate that? Is it ok for people in this country to think that “since they are not complaining I can cheat them”? I will absolutely fight such mentality because I believe it's impossible to tolerate such things. Also the policeman who called me today swore that the restaurant will have to pay a very heavy fine. “I, as Italian, cannot tolerate that those tourists will have such a terrible memory of Italy! Those people are the shame of Italy!!”.

Japanese people, though, have started to be fed up with being considered the well-off, easily-cheatable tourist to milk.

Ci stiamo rovinando con le nostre stesse mani. Come dico spesso, la meschinità sta diventando uno dei capisaldi del nostro popolo. Tanto che il turismo rischia di sentirne. E parecchio. In particolare, il numero di turisti giapponesi che si recano a Roma si è dimezzato rispetto al 1997. Motivi? Le strade dell'Urbe sono sporche, e specialmente c'è un ricchissimo business delle Truffe! […]E giustamente queste cose non passano inosservate, dato che ne parlano pubblicamente all'estero, in questo caso il Giappone, dove adesso Roma viene vista come una bellissima città d'arte ma anche come un “macchina succhia soldi”.

We are ruining ourselves with our own hands. As I use to say, meanness is becoming commonplace for our people. To the extent that tourism risks suffering from it. A lot.
In particular, the number of Japanese tourists who go to Rome halved from 1997. Why? Because the streets of Rome are dirty and ripping off is a very profitable business![…] And obviously such things cannot be ignored, as they talk about it abroad. In Japan in this case, Rome is not only seen as a beautiful city of art but also as a “money-sucking machine”.

Another Italian blogger, id: dragor, makes clear how a tourist is often regarded by some Roman shopkeepers.

PER GLI ITALIANI gli stranieri sono una massa d’imbecilli che aspettano soltanto di farsi fregare. Si considerano molto furbi e credono che tutti gli altri siano ingenui. La loro fantasia per tirare la botta è incredibile. […] Ma il massimo della fantasia si esercita nella fregatura individuale, che in molti casi si manifesta con il prezzo ad hoc. In un bar di Roma, mia moglie ha ordinato un caffè in francese. Le è stato fatturato 5 euro. Quando ho fatto notare nella lingua di Dante che era un furto, ho ricevuto questa risposta: “Dovevi dirlo subito che sei italiano. Quello è il prezzo per gli stranieri.”

FOR THE ITALIANS foreigners are a bunch of idiots waiting to be cheated. They consider themselves very cunning and think that the others are naive. The ideas they come up with to take someone for a ride are incredible. […] But the best idea they come up with is the one-to-one rip off, that often results in an ad hoc price.
In a bar in Rome, my wife ordered a coffee in french. They gave here a 5 euro check. So when I made them notice, in Dante's language, that that was a fraud I got this answer: “You should have immediately told us you were Italian. That is the price for foreigners”.

Full article at Global Voices

Tag: