Japanese tourists feel so let down by Paris shop assistants that they need treatment for a type of depression known as ”Paris Syndrome”.
”There are around 20 cases a year of the syndrome and it has been happening for several years,” Miyupi Kusama, an administrator at the Japanese embassy in Paris, told the Guardian. Already this year it has repatriated at least four visitors suffering from hallucinations.”Fragile travellers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis,” Hervé Benhamou, a psychologist, told Le Journal du Dimanche.
Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families settle in France, said: ”In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them … People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill-feeling.” – Guardian Unlimited Â