TOKYO
Compared to other large Japanese cities, Kyoto’s city center has remarkably little rail service. With no train lines running through the downtown area, and only two subway lines, if you want to get somewhere in Kyoto using public transportation, oftentimes buses are your only option.
That option might be getting more expensive for a lot of people, though, as Kyoto’s municipal government is seeking permission to start charging tourists higher prices than locals for using city buses.
There seem to be two somewhat contradictory purposes for the plan. In an interview with Japan’s Kansai TV, Kyoto mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said that the primary objective of the proposal is to reduce crowding on city-operated buses in Kyoto. “We want to improve the level of comfort in both residents’ lifestyles and sightseeing,” Kadokawa said. “Raising the price [for tourists] is not itself the goal, but rather how to address overcrowding, and this is one way to do so.” When asked “Is the goal to obtain more money from tourists?” Kadokawa replied “Not at all.”
However, in its documents outlining the proposal, the Kyoto City Transportation Bureau cites a 14.2-percent drop in Kyoto city bus ridership since the start of the pandemic, as well as having been operating in the red for the past three years, among the justifications for introducing higher bus fares for tourists.
Taken by itself, raising rates would decrease ridership even more, but ostensibly the Kyoto City Transportation Bureau feels that will be offset, revenue-wise, by overall increases in the number of travelers as Japan continues to move towards a post-pandemic environment and higher fares are collected from those tourists who are riding the buses. The proposal follows an announcement in March that Kyoto will be stopping sales of its one-day unlimited-ride bus passes, which have been popular with tourists for years.
I – Word Understanding
Contradictory – mutually opposed or inconsistent.
Justification – the action of showing something to be right or reasonable.
Ostensibly – apparently or purportedly, but perhaps not actually.
962 Kyoto wants to add extra charges for tourists to use city buses
