One full month after Japan's first confirmed case of the new coronavirus, there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of visitors at Tokyo's tourist spots, and the shops and other businesses that depend of them are feeling the effects. Major sporting events may also see more postponements if the virus keeps spreading.
One person worried about the coronavirus outbreak said, "If this continues for much longer, it could turn into a life-or-death situation."
On Friday afternoon in the Asakusa district of Taito Ward, Tokyo, the Nakamise Dori shopping street, normally packed wall-to-wall with foreign tourists, was a comfortable destination for students on school excursions.
At one corner of the street, a traditional craft shop named Sanbido, which sells wooden masks and ukiyo-e woodblock prints that are popular among Chinese customers, has seen sales fall in half compared with previous years. "Ever since there was a confirmed case in Japan, there have been fewer and fewer tourists -- and not just among Chinese tourists," said the owner of the shop with slumped shoulders. At another traditional craft shop, an employee said, "Customers from Australia or Southeast Asia aren't coming."
In the same ward, the usage rate of a tour bus parking lot that the ward maintains is down by about 40% compared with the year before. Hotels in the ward are also suffering with lower occupancy rates and higher cancellations, with some seeing about a 50% drop in customers.
Tokyo Stadium in Chofu, which is the home field for the J1 League's FC Tokyo soccer team, was supposed to host a team from China in March for the Asia Champions League match, but that was postponed until May.
At the same stadium, orders were placed for hand disinfectant sprays found in restrooms at the end of January, but the shipment was delayed due to limited supply. The stadium was finally able to put disinfectants back in the restrooms last week. This summer, the stadium will be one of the venues of the Tokyo Olympics, and the person in charge said uncomfortably, "If the coronavirus continues to spread further, we will have to think of more countermeasures."
The Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, in western Tokyo, began refunding tickets on Saturday. The museum had been allowing customers to switch days on their tickets since late January. However, in light of the rate at which the virus is spreading, it has decided to refund tickets that were purchased for the days between Jan. 22 and Feb. 29. The museum said, "We were originally thinking that customers would return to the museum after the contagion died down, but because we can't see that happening in the near future, exchanging tickets for a later date wasn't realistic."
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