The government has plans to launch a project this autumn to support events such as concerts and various sports that were affected by the coronavirus outbreak. A subsidy will cover 20% of ticket prices and merchandise sales to encourage consumers to participate in the events. The selection of event operators will begin in June at the earliest.
These plans are part of the Go To Campaign, a campaign to promote tourism and consumption of food and drink, to which 1.7 trillion yen was allocated in the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2020. The project is expected to cost about 120 billion yen. While the project will also include performances, movies, art museums and amusement parks, the companies involved and application methods are currently being adjusted.
Although the government initially planned to launch support projects this summer for various events as well as for the tourism industry, the launch of the events portion of the project was delayed to around September. For the time being, continued restriction on admission to sporting events where many people gather is necessary to prevent the spread of infection.
Due to the pandemic, holding music and live stage events has been difficult since February. According to an estimate by the PIA Research Institute, based on information provided by major ticket vendor PIA Corp., about 430,000 events that require admission fees were canceled or postponed between February and next January. The loss is estimated at about 690 billion yen, about 80% of the annual market.
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