TikTokers are experiencing the ‘Japan effect’

Apparently any place looks better if you just say it’s Japan. 

That’s according to a TikTok trend, dubbed the “Japan effect.” First reported in Casey Lewis’s youth trends newsletter After School, the trend has users making slideshows of two images. For all intents and purposes they are the same, except one is labelled with the original location and the second is labelled Tokyo, Japan. 

The idea being that the “Japan effect” is so strong, just the location tag can filter how we perceive an ordinary street or an average American neighborhood. Scrolling through the comments, those watching these TikTok videos genuinely believe the second image looks better than the first. 

“I’ve seen so many of these videos and it’s made me realise my own huge Japan bias,” one comment read. “Why is it so real.” (Some do play around with the saturation or add soft pink filters which somewhat undermines the theory). 

Others suggest the “Japan effect” has little actually to do with Japan. Instead, it’s an example of the grass always being greener or the shift in perspective when we take a moment to romanticize the mundane parts of life, they say. 

“America is actually pretty beautiful, it’s just a psychological barrier to being able to appreciate things you see on a daily basis,” one user commented. 

“I sometimes do that in my own house,” another wrote. ““If this was an Airbnb, I’d be having a blast.” Really makes you appreciate what you have.”

And yet the “America effect” doesn’t have quite the same charm to it. Japan simply has a reputation for making everything that bit cooler. Even 7-Eleven is better in Japan.  

Japanese culture also appears to yet again be having a moment. From the explosion in popularity of anime on streaming giants like Netflix—the company says anime viewership on the platform has tripled over the past five years—to the rise of matcha. In the U.S., retail sales of matcha are up 86% from three years ago, according to NIQ, a market research firm, so much so the bright green drink has become a bona-fide accessory. 

It’s no surprise, then, that Japan has become a top destination for young travelers. Gen Z and millennial visits to the country are up 1,300% since 2019. Japan is now the most popular country on social media, according to a 2025 Titan Travel study. The country has experienced a 50% increase in search volume over the past three years, with 184 million Instagram posts, and 15.6 million TikTok hashtags for #Japan, according to the report.

Of course, the temptation to romanticize and exoticize foreign countries is a large part of the reason people travel in the first place. Simply put, the “Japan effect” exists, as one TikTok user noted, “because we associate this country with pain suffering and heartbreak.” 

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