The coronavirus epidemic has affected the maintenance of national parks.
The Natural Parks Foundation, a Tokyo-based general incorporated foundation responsible for the management of major national parks, has seen parking fees -- which account for more than half of its income -- plunge due to a drop in tourism. The Environment Ministry, which is in charge of the national parks, is struggling to keep them from falling into disrepair.
"Not a single sightseeing bus is coming. I'd never seen anything like this before," sighed the 63-year-old director of the foundation's Kamikochi Branch, which is in the Chubusangaku National Park in Nagano Prefecture.
Of Japan's 34 national parks, 15 with large numbers of tourists, including parks in Chubusangaku, Nikko and the Seto Inland Sea, require a particularly high level of maintenance work. Therefore, the ministry outsources the management of the parking lots to the foundation, contracting the entity to use the income to maintain the parks.
In fiscal 2018, about 800 million yen, more than half of the foundation's approximately 1.4 billion yen income, came from parking fees.
The Kamikochi Branch has collected a parking fee of between 500 yen and 5,000 yen per vehicle and used the money to maintain and clean the mountain trails. However, parking lot use from April to May was near zero, and only a few visitors have returned even after a state of emergency was fully lifted across Japan.
The director said, "We have no choice but to reduce our activities." It is feared that the safety of hikers will be adversely affected by insufficient removal of fallen rocks and repair work on bridges. Cleaning of toilets and other facilities in the park cannot be done thoroughly, potentially leading to hygiene problems.
According to the foundation, its total income from parking fees in this fiscal year so far has fallen by about 150 million yen from the same period last year, and its income for the full fiscal year is expected to be 500 million yen less than in fiscal 2019. As a result, the foundation said it would draw about 500 million yen from its basic property -- equivalent to the capital of a private company -- and also plans to borrow from financial institutions.
The foundation's deputy director general said: "The use of the parking lots is still less than half of the average year, and there is no prospect of activity in the next fiscal year and beyond."
According to the ministry, the government spends more than 1 billion yen a year to maintain the 34 national parks.
"The foundation bears a great deal [of the financial burden]. Direct [government] support is difficult at a time when budget cuts are needed," a ministry official in charge said. "We hope the foundation will make efforts to improve its balance by utilizing the government's tourism support projects in response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus."
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