HO CHI MINH CITY -- Most tourists don't expect to be scolded by tour operators while vacationing abroad. But that's what they're in for when they join a tour led by Hiromi Tanaka of Sinh Cafe Tours in Vietnam.

"You Japanese tourists come to Vietnam not knowing anything about the culture, history or the wars of this country," she said on one of the bus tours from Ho Chi Minh City.

"City dwellers make up just 20 percent of Vietnam's population. What about Japan?" she asked. When no one answered, she said, "Today's Japanese don't even know anything about their own country."

In a bus packed with Japanese tourists, the provocative question-and-answer session, interspersed with informative accounts on Vietnamese society, lasted until the bus arrived at the Mekong Delta.

The tourists, who had been sitting in apparent indifference for two hours, suddenly broke into applause as she paused.

"While there are so many things the Japanese can learn from Vietnam, it's sad to see tourists arrive en masse, only to do the things trendy magazines tell them to do," Tanaka said.

World Tourism Statistics 2001 of the Asia-Pacific Tourism Exchange Center show a sharp increase in the number of Japanese visitors to Vietnam in recent years, jumping from 95,258 in 1998 to 152,755 in 2000.

According to the Vietnamese Embassy in Tokyo, visitor figures rose even further in 2001, to above 200,000, and some 140,000 have already visited in the first six months of this year, creating what the tourism industry is calling "an unprecedented Vietnam boom."

"Since the recent boom, Vietnam for many Japanese has become a country of fresh spring rolls and variety stores, rather than a country with painful war memories," Tanaka said.

The Indochinese country has suffered a legacy of warfare and occupation by foreign powers, including in the past century China, Japan, France and the United States.

But with a typical stay lasting just four days, rather than visiting such historic sites as the War Remnants Museum or the Reunification Palace where the first communist tanks crashed through its gates when Saigon fell, many Japanese tourists seem more interested in finding a good variety store, resting at a trendy cafe and choosing where to have dinner.

Not only do the tourists not know about the wars, they also have no idea that Japan was one of Vietnam's aggressors, Tanaka said.

Long before the war between North and South Vietnam, in which the U.S. participated and is said to have claimed 3 million lives, or the equivalent of 10 percent of Vietnam's total population at the time, 2 million starved to death during World War II during Japan's occupation, due to rice requisition and Japan's policy to force farmers to plant industrial crops instead of rice.

Tanaka has lived in Ho Chi Minh City for four years. During her previous post at a nongovernment organization, the Japan International Volunteer Center, she was involved in the support of developing nations, including Vietnam.

She was always interested in the country, but an encounter with a former Vietnamese refugee marked her turning point. The refugee took Tanaka to sites with people who were still displaced and those suffering from the aftereffects of war, including wounds and the ravages of Agent Orange.

Shocked by the gap between the lives of Vietnamese people and her life of relative luxury and comfort in Japan, Tanaka packed her bags and moved to the country in 1998.

While still helping the NGO in writing newsletters and in research, she took the job at the tour agency to earn extra money. However, she gets only 70,000 dong, or about 550 yen, for a full day of guiding.

Though she receives a little extra as a housing allowance, it is far from her former salary in Japan, she said, but still high by Vietnam standards.

A coconut candy factory worker, for instance, makes 20,000 dong a day -- about 150 yen. They work 360 days a year, with only a few days off during the Lunar New Year festival. But they are happy just to have a job, she said.

Despite the wages, her job gives her satisfaction, as the low-priced tour company attracts many young Japanese whom she hopes to enlighten.

While the recent flow of Japanese tourists may help the Vietnamese economy, Tanaka is worried about its negative impact.

"Youth, especially Vietnamese girls, are subdued, attaching great value to virtue. But seeing even high school girls from Japan having brands like Prada, staying in hotels like The Majestic and eating in restaurants that they (Vietnamese girls) may never be able to go in their entire life -- is causing anger among some," she said.

This may be one of the causes of the recent material pursuit by Vietnamese youth, leading, in some cases, to crimes such as theft and prostitution, she added.

She is wearied to see more and more young Japanese males visiting prostitutes during their visits.

"Groups of Japanese males in their late teens or early 20s go to prostitutes and then exchange information with each other -- like that they paid only $2 in Cambodia," she lamented. "And these are not the ugly old Japanese men we are used to seeing."

The wage gap and why these people had to resort to such work never cross the minds of the Japanese, she added, noting she lectures them when they ask her about "good places" to find prostitutes.

"As with everything else, like the war, no adult has tried to teach them these things," she said.

Tanaka dreams of opening a floating library for children along the Mekong in the future. While the hardworking Vietnamese hold education in high esteem, she said there are not enough books for children in rural areas.

She plans to import used Japanese picture books that would otherwise be dumped and attach translations.

She concluded the tour with a final address to the group.

"Thank you for listening patiently. I hope I have contributed to your understanding of Vietnam, and of how lucky you all are to have been born Japanese."