Not people, it is luggage!
Almost two years ago, I walked around the center of Osaka city - Namba area, and very much surprised to find many foreign tourists walking around the town.
Living in Osaka, I rarely visit the area, and didn't know the area was crowded with this many tourists. It wan't a news for those who visit the area often, but for me, it was very surprising to find that many tourists. That was 2 years ago.
We now have even more tourists in Osaka.
Recently we often hear a word - "観光公害" - 'Kanko Kogai' literally translated to "Tourism Pollution"
This really is about "overtourism"
Listening to the people who mention this word, I realized one thing.
Unlike the cities which suffer overtourism such as Venezia, Barcelona, or Amsterdam, in Tokyo and Osaka, tourism situations aren't as bad.
The local people of Tokyo and Osaka are mainly talking about luggage that the tourists carry around!
Basically local people are very happy to have many foreign guests come to Osaka.
Having the tourists energizes the cities, boosts the economy, and most importantly, shows this homoethnic society how the multicultural symbiotic society would be like in the near future of this country.
But the luggage! I just walked around the town of Namba only for about a couple of hours and already encountered a few small incidents with luggage.
One tourist ran over a foot of other with her suitcase wheels.
The other tourist almost dropped her luggage from the top of a steep stairway of Namba Station. If she wasn't able to hold on to it before it fell off the edge, I am pretty sure that somebody would have been injured.
A bunch of young tourists sticking together on a pedestrian road, all dragging suitcases, walking slowly around 9 o'clock in the morning of a weekday blocking the road. All the locals were in hurry to get to their offices, and because of this bunch, they could not go any faster. I could see the frustration in their faces.


The solution
If the luggage is the problem, the solution must be easy.
A question came first:
Where on earth the tourists are carrying the luggage to?
In most of cases, they are carrying it to their hotels.
Or if they are checking out of hotels, they are carrying it to the airport.
It is this simple.
Instead of the tourists carrying luggage by themselves, if somebody else does it for them by cars, the problem is now solved.
I started researching what kind of government permission I have to take, how it can work, how I can let tourists know about this service, etc.
It took me about a month to prepare and raise some money. I started this service on March 25, 2018. And I had the first client on the 10th of April, 2018.
It will soon be 2 years since we started this service. We have delivered over 20,000 bags till now. No major trouble with the luggage.
We have been successful in providing this service to many tourists.
I visited Namba yesterday for my personal stuff. Since we started this service, has the town been changed?
The answer is no. Still there are many tourists dragging their heavy luggage in and out of narrow alleys, running over toes of people, blocking the alleys... Nothing has changed.
Why?
Because nobody knows about us!


So I need your help!
Please help us!
We need people who visit Japan to know this - Japanese train systems and stations are not luggage friendly!
So please let people know about this.
And if you can introduce our service on your blog or any other media, that can help us a lot!
We have an affiliate system up and running. You can have your unique link when you introduce our service.
If you are interested in having your own unique ID, please let me know by emailing me at
