The Problem With

Logan Paul’s Trip to Japan

The horse is still twitching, so let’s beat it some more. This essay is not going to delve too deep into the “We Found a Dead Body” video because enough people have covered that. But not enough people have addressed the overall behavior during Logan Paul’s trip to Japan. Since it is our goal to promote and encourage respectful travel, it’s important to take a look at this recent internet drama and see what can be learned from it.

What is a Logan Paul?

If you’re not a fourteen-year-old girl with unsupervised access to an iPhone, you might not know about the trash that is Logan Paul (and Jake Paul, but that’s a whole other issue). I first gave this fellow a view when the Flobots released a diss track on him. Apparently, he made a fairly sexist rendition of their hit song “Handlebars.”

His name once again entered my (and many other travel bloggers’) newsfeeds when he released a video about finding a body in Aokigahara, also known as Japan’s suicide forest. But, as I said in my introduction, I’m not going to dwell on that in this article. If you would like more information on what happened, you can watch Philip DeFranco’s video on the situation.

Paul was also accepted into Ohio University’s Engineering program but dropped out when his Vine channel blew up. So, he’s clearly the mature role model all children should idolize.

The Issue

Without giving Paul any more views, We the Unicorns on Twitter posted a great compilation of his antics during his recent trip to Japan. It doesn’t take a social studies professor to determine the behavior shown during Logan Paul’s visit to Japan is not how anyone should behave out in public.

For me, the problem is that Paul is so addicted to creating content for his channel, he’s forgotten that the world doesn’t revolve around him. He sees people, places, and things as props to help him generate views, which then turn into a nice Adsense check from YouTube. Because his audience is so young, the crazier the antics, the more likely they are to watch the next “episode” of his life. We are talking about the guy who staged being shot in his hotel room in front of a crowd of fans. Logan Paul’s trip to Japan was nothing other than a way for him to take his show to a new location. Respect be damned.

Why It’s Actually an Issue

Again, without getting into the whole ordeal with Aokigahara, Paul has an audience of 15 million and his Japan vlogs each received over 5 million views. His audience is made primarily of kids aged eight to fifteen, and it’s sad to think they’re looking at his video footage and thinking that this is an “ok” way to behave anywhere. It may not seem like it, but when you travel, you’re acting as an ambassador for your home country and you should want to represent yourself in the best light. Imagine how turned off you would be if a group of Japanese tourists ran up to you with a raw fish and filmed your reaction while you’re just trying to go to work or school. You wouldn’t like it, so why would it be okay to do it to others?

In a time when we’re all actively trying to be better human beings and respect one another’s differences and cultures, it’s sad to see someone with so much influence behave so poorly.

I don’t care how he might act off camera, it’s the way Paul chose to present himself as a visitor to another country on camera that’s the issue. I want everything that’s happened in the last week to be something we can all learn from. Travel with respect and remember that someone else’s home isn’t a prop for your content.