In 2024 there were 800 of them, nearly double the previous year’s number, according to Japan News.

The accidents are largely attributed to tourists navigating narrow, unfamiliar roads in residential areas and other locations not typically designed for heavy tourist traffic, heightening the risk of collisions.

The Fuji Five Lakes region has recently become tourism hotspot.

The town of Fujiyoshida, for instance, attracts over 4,000 visitors daily to Honcho Street, where they capture photos of the retro townscape with Mount Fuji in the background.

In nearby Fujikawaguchiko, foreign tourists gather around a convenience store on top of whose roof the mountain appears to rest.

But the narrow roads in and around these locations are not equipped to handle such an influx, according to The Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

The police recorded 770 property-damage accidents involving foreign tourists in rental cars in 2024, a 1.8-fold increase from the previous year’s 417.

The number of accidents resulting in injuries rose to four from zero.

To address this rise in accidents, local authorities began issuing maps indicating accident-prone areas in February and have encouraged rental car agencies to distribute multilingual safety leaflets.

The police also created flyers in Chinese, Korean and Thai, with plans to distribute them to inbound tourists to help overcome language barriers and improve awareness of local traffic rules.

Japan received a record 21.5 million tourists in the first half of this year, a 21% year-on-year increase that has been driven by tourism campaigns, a weak yen and increased flight connections.

The country logged more than 36.8 million tourist arrivals last year.