The major repercussions of Tohoku’s massive earthquake and tsunami are extremely well documented, but while the visible devastation is restricted to the north, its far-reaching effects can still be felt over 200 kilometres south in Tokyo — and indeed throughout the rest of the country. Power consumption has to be kept in check, manufacturing output is still down, and now it has just been announced that tourism has plummeted to its lowest levels since the SARS outbreak in 2003. A whopping 62.5% decline from April last year.
This latest bit of bad news, like the other problems, undoubtedly affects the country as a whole, but at the same time, it’s very easy to see the damage it does to individual traders; people who rely almost solely on foreign visitors for sales.
Yes, it may well be tat that some of them sell, but it’s tat that the tourists like to take back, and without them, times are clearly very tough.
Candy says
That green outfit is really something. Polyester too. Where can get me one?!! 🙂
Lee says
You’ll have to go to her shop for that!
NihonBurp says
All those Japan head bands and no silly foreigners to wear them, what a shame
Lizzy says
It really is a shame. I would love to go to Japan, but it’s not a fear of radiation keeping me away. Airline tickets aren’t getting any cheaper and it’s certainly not getting any easier to actually get on a plane. 🙁 I hope the tourism picks up soon.
NihonBurp says
It is strange how world travel is becoming cheaper and cheaper, yet Japan still stays relatively expensive to fly to. Even flights within Japan are expensive, I could fly to anywhere in Europe for less than 50GBP (sometimes from just 10GBP if booked early) but there seems to be few cheap option of flying from Japan. I wonder if it is because of lack of competition between airlines?
Lee says
Yes, it’s not cheap at all to travel to and around Japan. And with the Yen still so strong, that’s hardly going to help tourism.
Leaving Japan is equally, if not more expensive too. Buying a ticket to fly home to Britain is way more expensive than if I were coming in the opposite direction. Double probably. And that’s at ‘cheaper’ times of year…
Jessica says
I’m like Lizzy. I immediately looked into visiting after the earthquake, because I knew the tourism industry would be hit really hard. But airline and hotel prices are incredibly high – prohibitively so.
Lee says
I only know how expensive the prices are to fly from Japan, but yeah, hotels can be incredibly expensive. Especially ryokan. A situation made all the worse by the strong Yen.
thomasvye says
The hotel I booked with (who I have always stayed with) were doing discounts for people booking a long time in advance (50 days or more) and another smaller discount if it was 30 days or more. There are some deals out there! 🙂
inket says
@Jessica:
They’re not higher than usual.
thomasvye says
I got extremely lucky with my flight. Having cancelled my trip (as it would have been about 2 weeks after the quake), I called my airline and they gave me back all my money; this has meant (thanks to them) that I have been able to rebook without lengthy re-saving and I am now going back in October. 🙂 (I have to skip the summer; even with aircon, summer in Tokyo has killed me dead before, though I still enjoyed myself and got to visit the Comiket).
I surely haven’t been put off visiting; I feel my relationship with the country has changed, as any relationship would change in the face of life’s fragility being revealed in such a powerful way. I was more worried about the nuclear issue initially than the earthquake, when it wasn’t clarer what was happening; I have visited japan several times before, and an earthquake could have happened any of those times. That’s how I feel.
Looking forward to coming back!
Lee says
Glad to hear everything worked out for you. Very good of the airline too.
Wise move avoiding the summer months. This year will be a lot worse due to power saving and possibly power cuts. It’s not going to be a nice place when the heat and humidity really picks up.
October is perfect. Still warm, but without the humidity. A lovely time of year.
thomasvye says
I have been in October before an loved it. It’s ideal weather for a visitor – when you want to be out and about all day seeing things and going places, extreme humidity makes it such hard work and your visit ends up as a fight with the weather.
The airline were amazing. They never stopped flying, so they did not owe me that money because they could have fulfilled their part of the contract, and it was short notice. So I am very grateful to them.
Lee says
Excellent. Really can’t argue with that. Very good service.
Calissaja says
What’s funny about the green monstrosity is that it shows the view from my sofa in Kyoto! Although the view is better when it’s not in polyester…
Unfunnily, I went into a tourist shop today, which is usually 7 floors of plastic samurai swords/sushi fridge magnets, and they’ve closed 3 floors and halved the stock/staff because there are no tourists. Usually they have tour buses stopping off, but today I didn’t see another customer. The staff said that they’re not expecting it to improve until maple leaf viewing in the autumn.
Lee says
That’s funny. The view that is.
Yeah, I guess that must be happening in many places. I just hope that they can open up again when things return to something like normal. Won’t be easy though that’s for sure.
Mellon says
On my last day in Japan after 1.5 yrs living in Chiba and Ryougoku, I decided to take a stroll on Asakusa, 1 month after the big earthquake. I talked to a lot of the shop owners there .. the obaasan and the ojiisan.
They said business is pretty bad because they had a dramatic count of foreign tourists and I was the living proof that during my 2 hours walk in Asakusa, I only saw maybe less than 30 foreigners (by skin colour). I could spot some Asian tourists too like Indonesians. But I am sure Japan will recover, business will boom again. NO dOUbt. Gaman shirou…!!