Visitors from outside Tokyo and Osaka increased significantly in the respective cities' commercial districts on Saturday and Sunday, the first weekend since the state of emergency was lifted.
In the Ginza district of Tokyo, the figure was up 60% from the previous week. In the area around Osaka-Umeda Station, it was up 56%.
The data is according to SoftBank Group-affiliated Agoop Corp., which collects location information via smartphone apps to estimate the number of people per hour near main stations.
From the anonymized data, Agoop analyzed the population who live outside Tokyo and Osaka and compared the average figures between noon and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to the same time range of the previous weekend of May 23 and 24.
In Ginza, where department stores and large multipurpose complexes resumed operations, the number of visitors from outside the capital rose 60% to about 20,000. The overall number, including Tokyo residents, was about 50,000, up 44%. In the Ameyoko shopping district in Ueno, as well as the youth magnets Takeshita Street in Harajuku and Shibuya Center-gai, the number of people living outside the capital increased by 30-40%.
In Osaka Prefecture, where the declaration was lifted on May 21, the number of visitors in the prefecture increased remarkably. At the area around Osaka-Umeda Station, where many commercial facilities are located, the number of visitors increased 48% from the previous week to about 120,000, including about 40,000 from outside Osaka, up 56%. At Namba Station, the number of visitors from outside the prefecture increased by 34%.
From the second half of February, the number of visitors to Ginza and Osaka-Umeda plunged, and around the middle of last month, the number hovered around 10-20% of the level in early February, before the spread of infection expanded drastically.
Passengers at major JR stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area for the weekdays from the time the state of emergency was lifted, May 25-29, increased by 20-30% from the May 18-22 weekdays, according to a survey by East Japan Railway Co.
According to JR East, the comparison was made between the weekdays before and after the emergency using the number of people who passed through automatic ticket gates.
In Tokyo, the number of passengers increased 23% at Shibuya Station and 22% at Tokyo Station and Shinjuku Station. The number of passengers rose at Yokohama Station by 20%, at Chiba Station by 32%, and at Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture by 21%. Compared to the previous year, the number of passengers is down 50-70%.
The number of passengers on Shinkansen bullet trains increased 26%. Using only Saturday and Sunday figures, the number jumped 45%.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
