KyRoamer

I've read that tipping usually is a no no. What are the exceptions?

I understand no tipping in restaurants. At hotels it was suggested that you could give a small gift to the concierge at a hotel. Far as I know other employees including bus persons don't get tipped. Someone suggested that rounding up was okay in taxis. I'm guessing that means to the next 100 yen.

But what about tour directors on organized tours and private tour guides? Is it proper to tip porters at airport, train stations and elsewhere? Who else?

All the tipping info was scattered. Maybe a tipping sticky would be a good idea.

abmj-jr

Don't really need a sticky. Just don't tip.

RichardInSF

He's right. I know of only one situation where tipping is expected -- when you buy sumo tickets but only when you do it through a sumo teahouse. As doing that requires an introduction from an existing member, I cannot imagine that anyone visiting Japan would run into it.

Otherwise, no, no, no!

KyRoamer

Thanks everyone.

evergrn

Some ryokans and private guides may accept tips but, in short, no tips necessary as mentioned above. Just hoping the practice of tipping NEVER EVER becomes commonplace in Jpn, despite increase in foreign tourists there and some of them well-intentioned folks who like to tip.

I've been in US for decades, but I HATE TIPPING. Always have, always will.

KyRoamer

Odyssey Unlimited recommends tipping Tour Director only $10 to $15 per person per day on its Insiders Japan tour. On a 25 person 14 day tour that is a nice hunk of change.

Pickles

Le estas buscando tres pies al gato. Right there on that Odyssey Unlimited (never heard of them) Inside Japan tour webpage it says:

Your Tour Price Includes:

• Round-trip air transportation from listed cities
• 11 nights’ accommodations: 10 nights in Deluxe and First Class hotels; 1 night in traditional Japanese ryokan
• 19 meals: 11 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 6 dinners
• Extensive sightseeing as described, including all entrance fees
• Services of an Odysseys Unlimited Tour Director
• Private motorcoach transportation throughout your trip
• Rail transportation as described
• Luggage handling for one bag per person
• Gratuities for local guides, dining room servers, airport and hotel porters, and all drivers
• $100 frequent traveler credit towards your next .Odysseys Unlimited tour ($200 after 3 tours; $300 after 10 tours)

KyRoamer

As I said, Odysseys recommends tipping ONLY the Tour Director because fee includes Tour Directors services and Gratuities for local guides, dining room servers, airport and hotel porters, and all drivers. Notice list does not include gratuities for tour director. The Odyssey information package then spells out the $10 to $15 per person suggested gratuity.

Pickles

Is this in some other package that is not available on the website? Well, the fee includes the Tour Director services, so why should you tip them? And I don't quite see the difference between "Tour Directors" and local guides.

Pickles

Right there, they state it explicitly: https://odysseys-unlimited.com/what-...ling-to-japan/

freecia

Tour Directors usually accompany the group's guests once they arrive at the airport in the destination country to their departure at the end of the trip. They're responsible for confirming detailed itinerary, setting the driving route with the driver, announcing how much time & where to meet the bus, chasing late guests, ensuring everyone is on the bus, arranging lodging keys, setting up morning wakeup & breakfast times, coordinating with meal stops (including dietary needs), explaining shopping, and taking care of guest needs (ie emergency medical). Decent ones will also explain the general history and significance, setup the itinerary well, inform of the next day's weather & itinerary, and know where the bathrooms are. Basically, they ride herd like a nanny or parent so the tour can progress in a timely manner without literally losing customers. And yes, it is actually a somewhat necessary role for most large groups of adults touring together.

Local guides are usually a day-of specific guide for a major city or attraction. They are the experts for local history, culture, and custom.

International Tour Directors for American tour companies usually expect a tip because that is the client base. Local guides go by the local tipping customs. This is based on my experiences on going on several bus tours in Asia & Europe.

AlwaysAisle

Tour guides in Japan with Japanese clients do not get tips. I know that because my family friends work for tour industry in Japan and I had few tours in Japan with tour guides, by Japanese tour company not by non-Japanese company.

I do not agree with non-Japanese company try to enforce non-Japanese customs when doing business in Japan. Does not matter what International Tour Directors of America says, don't enforce the U.S. customs in Japan. Some elderly in Japan consider tipping by a customer insulting.

Pickles

So basically a glorified high-functioning nanny. Nannies don't get tips in Japan, so no tip for the Tour Director.

freecia

Japanese Tour director jobs would be a lot easier if they could pile everyone into a cart, stick a colored hat on them, and make them hold a rope. Or if their customers were so good at waiting patiently and carrying out their trash. I can only wistfully imagine being able to board & de-board a 40 person bus in less than 10 minutes

I'm not the tour person (my parents like traveling with a group of people who charter tours) but will say a good tour director does improve the trip experience and almost as magical as Mary Poppins. Some lean more towards being a bit of a concierge or fixer and have built up business relationships with the venues. Others are great teachers.

ETA: One of our tour directors in Japan discreetly tipped at specific ryokans which offered kaiseki meals & entertainment to maintain good business relationships. I only knew because I nosily asked about the corollary (high context) rules of Japanese tipping and she was a higher level dedicated guide for the tour operator. This was her obligation on behalf of the tour operator, not on behalf of the guests. Tourists really aren't expected to guesstimate a tip. If the hotel wants to add a specific % service charge, they'll typically say so on the reservation. Izakaya may also have a table fee-esque charge called otoshi and you get a small appetizer for the fee which will be stated on the receipt.

JTB (a large Japanese travel agency & tour operator) doesn't mention gratuities for their tour guides for tours marketed to overseas guests https://online.jtbusa.com/TourList.aspx

OP - you might be wondering what the Japanese do to show appreciation of great service. Give them more of your business. For a tour company, that may mean use them again and write corporate to say your guide was excellent. Some people will also specifically request tours with that guide on other itineraries (or charter). Americans also tend to like to give gifts but be aware that Japanese tend to view gift reciprocation and obligation quite seriously and it is something I personally try to steer clear of.

Pickles

The first time I went to Japan (multiple decades ago, as a teenager) I went with 33 members of my family: parents, brothers, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. You don't know my family, but if you looked up Brownian motion in the dictionary you'd see their picture. Because it was the first time in Japan for most of us, and given the unwileldiness of the proceedings, we booked a bus and a tour guide to take us around Japan.

A usual morning would start as follows. 7:30 AM on the bus, everybody ready to go and fully fueled with breakfast. That was the theory. In reality, at 7:30 AM there would be nobody on the bus, with the 33 of us scattered around the hotel in our rooms, having breakfast, possibly asleep, or maybe lost somewhere near by. Tour guide would go off to search for us and round up a number of us. At 7:40 there would be miraculously, 15 of us on the bus. Another round of search and rescue would raise the count on the bus to 28 by 7:55. One last laser-focused expedition would land one more, at which point the first few who got on the bus decide one (or all) of the following (a) they need to go to the bathroom, (b) they forgot their camera/wallet/brain in the room, (c) a number of them want to go across the street to the combini to buy snacks for the journey. Finally, by (say) 8:15 you'd get everybody in line.

Now, remember, the day would (in theory) develop as follows: 7:30 departure; 8:00-8:15 visit to Meiji Jingu; 9:00-9:15 stop by Shibuya crossing for photo op; 10:00-10:15 Imperial Palace gardens visit; 11:30-12:15 lunch at traditional folk restaurant with Geisha dance; 1:00-1:15 stroll down Ginza; 2:03 take Shinkansen to Odawara; 3:00-4:30 do the Hakone round trip without stopping for anything, including bathroom breaks; 5:00 arrival at Hakone hotel for dinner and free time (all times between events are to allow for bus transfer). When we'd leave by 8:15 something had to yield, and it wasn't the Shinkansen train, which we had to take, no matter what.

Now repeat some version of this schedule for 15 days all over Honshu and you can imagine the tour guide going home and committing ritual suicide. She didn't deserve a tip, she deserved canonization on her way to sainthood.