A dozen Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital after falling victim to the "Paris syndrome". It is a disorder identified twenty years ago by the psychiatrist Hiroaki Ota that appears when a Japanese man who travels to the French capital observes strong contrasts between his expectations and the Parisian reality and suffers a nervous breakdown . The polite Japanese tourists who come to the city are unable to separate the idealized vision of the city created from films like Amelie , from the reality of a modern and bustling metropolis and the tough character of the French, who are sometimes quite rude.
The Japanese embassy has a 24-hour hotline for tourists suffering from this severe "culture shock" and can offer emergency hospital treatment if necessary.
