A Chilean influencer with over 137,000 followers is the latest foreign content creator to cause a stir in Japan. Marimar Pérez-Banus, who regularly uploads fitness videos alongside her sister on her Instagram page under the username of @mmgymsisters, posted footage of herself doing a pull-up on a Shinto shrine gate. Someone then uploaded the video on X on Monday under the words, “Baka na gaijin” (“stupid foreigner”). It already has over 30 million views and several irate comments. 

 

“What is this person doing at the torii gate? The torii gates of shrines are structures that are considered to be the boundary between the world of gods and the world of humans, but this shows a lack of respect for Japanese religious culture and customs… I hope she never comes to Japan again,” wrote one user. “Such a shame for us,” commented another. “She doesn’t represent any of what most Chileans believe and know about Japan.” 

Pérez-Banus deleted the footage and uploaded an apology video. “I want to apologize for my actions in Japan. It wasn’t my intention to be disrespectful. It was something I did without thinking and I feel bad for doing it.”

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Nuisance Influencers  

In the past couple of years, nuisance foreign influencers have made headlines in Japan for all the wrong reasons. The most notorious was, of course, kick streamer Ramsey Khalid Ismael — better known as “Johnny Somali” — who harassed passengers on trains with comments like “Hiroshima, Nagasaki… we do again.” He was arrested last year for trespassing at a hotel construction site in Osaka’s Chuo ward. Though the charges against him were eventually dropped, he was fined by a Japanese court earlier this year for playing loud music at a gyudon (beef on rice) restaurant.  

Also making the news in 2023 was a group of four YouTubers who traveled up and down the country without paying. For a $10,000 challenge, they dodged train fares, begged for bus money and enjoyed breakfast at a five-star hotel before fleeing when the bill came. Among them was Fidias Panayiotou, who has more than 2.6 million YouTube followers and was this year elected into the European Parliament as an independent MEP. 

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