Panel Discussion

Alex Kerr x Jiro Nakai "Rethinking Tourism: From Mass Crowds to Meaningful Experiences"

FREE

2025.5.10: 14:00–15:30

QUESTION 4F

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Athens, Acropolis, Greece,1991 © Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

This event is held in conjunction with Martin Parr's exhibition, "Small World", this discussion will explore the issue of overtourism, using Kyoto, one of its most prominent frontlines, as a starting point. We welcome Alex Kerr, an expert in traditional house restoration and professor at Kyoto University of Advanced Science, along with Jiro Nakai, a lecturer at Bunkyo University's Faculty of International Studies. Through the external gaze that seeks "Kyoto-ness" and the identity of the region, we will examine how to curb the oversimplification and bastardizing of culture and urban spaces. What does the "internationalization" of tourism truly mean, and how should the host communities reconsider it? Cities are living organisms, constantly evolving, but for whom? Is "sustainable tourism" truly achievable? These questions will be explored in a thought-provoking discussion.

Important Notice: * Registration will begin 30 minutes prior to the event start time on the 4th floor of QUESTION.

Speakers Speakers

"Alex Kerr (Author, Restorer of old Japanese houses. Professor at Kyoto University of Advanced Science)"

Author, Restorer of old Japanese houses.
Professor at Kyoto University of Advanced Science
Born in 1952 in Bethesda Maryland, he came to Japan as a child with his
family in 1964, and has been based in Kameoka, near Kyoto, since 1977.
Alex studied Japanese at Yale, Chinese as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and has also traveled widely in Southeast Asian. He writes in both English and in Japanese.
Starting with “Chiiori,” a 300-year old thatched roofed house in Shikoku’s Iya
Valley which he bought while still in college in 1973, Alex has gone on to restore over 50 old houses in towns around Japan. In 2024, the Architectural Institute of Japan granted him its Cultural Award.
He speaks widely in Japanese as well as English on rural revival and town planning, sustainable tourism, Japanese art, and landscape. Since 2008, he has been designated a Visit Japan Ambassador by the Tourism Agency; in 2019 he received the Commissioner's Commendation of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

His books include Lost Japan (1993); Dogs and Demons (2001); Living in
Japan (2006); Theory of Japanese Landscape (2014); Another Kyoto (2016);
and Hidden Japan (2023).
Jiro Nakai (Lecturer, Department of International Tourism, Faculty of International Studies, Bunkyo University)

After spending 25 years at Ryukoku University, where Nakai enrolled in 1997, he has been in his current position since April 2011. Nakai’s specialization is tourism sociology, with key research themes including the commercialization of cultural heritage for tourism and over-tourism in historic cities. Recent research focuses on the cultural impact of Japan’s inbound tourism boom on Japanese society and the structural factors contributing to over-tourism. Nakai’s publications include "Panku suru Kyoto: Overtourism to Tatakau Kankotoshi" (Overloaded Kyoto: A Tourist City Handling Overtourism) (Seikaisha).

Moderator Moderator

Yusuke Nakanishi (KYOTOGRAPHIE Co-Founder/Director)

© 2022 Naoyuki Ogino

Lighting Director. Yusuke Nakanishi was born in 1968 in Fukuoka, and currently lives in Kyoto. He travels the world, expressing his impressions of light and shadow from his memories. He has worked as a lighting director for music videos, feature films, stages, music concerts, fashion shows and interior designs. He also created lighting object series eatable lights and Tamashii and has exhibited installations at the Hara Museum, School Gallery (Paris), including Nuit Blanche in Kyoto. He co-founded KYOTOGRAPHIE with Lucille Reyboz in 2013 and is the co-director. In Autumn 2022, he was involved in the creative direction for Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition LIGHT OF FLOWERS, which was held on the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine and the Tadasunomori Forest. In 2023, he co-founded KYOTOPHONIE Borderless Music Festival with Lucille Reyboz.