So, the crowds at Shibuya Crossing are getting a whopping 4.9% thinner? I might actually be able to walk five feet without being accidentally featured in the background of someone’s "Life in Tokyo" vlog. Apparently, the influx of tourists dipped this January, mostly thanks to a drop in visitors from China. I’m sure the luxury boutiques and duty-free shops are absolutely thrilled about this development. It’s almost as if global travel trends don’t just move in a perfect upwards line—groundbreaking stuff, really. Maybe now we can finally grab a seat at a decent ramen shop without a two-hour wait that costs more than the actual bowl. Or we could just sit around and panic about the "economic impact" while secretly enjoying the rare luxury of not being stepped on. The math is simple: fewer people, less chaos. I’ll take the silence over the "growth" any day.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20260218/k10015055141000.html