The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Games to be held without fans from abroad
The organizing committee for the Tokyo Games and the central and metropolitan governments have agreed that fans from abroad will not be allowed to enter Japan for the Olympics and Paralympics due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The organizing committee and the central and metropolitan governments will hold a meeting with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and make a formal announcement by the start of the torch relay on March 25.
“It’s very difficult to predict what the situation will be like in the future, so a cautious decision is needed,” Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa said to IOC President Thomas Bach and IPC President Andrew Parsons at a meeting on March 3. According to Games officials, the IOC and IPC indicated they would respect Japan’s decision.
About 900,000 tickets have already been sold overseas. Without fans from abroad, the organizing committee expects ticket revenue to decrease by about ¥90 billion. It will also make it difficult for people from around the world to deepen their interactions with each other. The refund procedure is also expected to involve large costs.
However, coronavirus variants are spreading around the world. If a large number of foreigners enter the country, there is a risk of variants becoming prevalent in Japan.
The government has decided not to host fans from abroad to dispel the public’s concerns, even though the number of coronavirus cases in Japan has decreased compared to January, when a state of emergency was issued.
The organizing committee will make a decision by the end of April on whether to set a limit on the number of domestic spectators at competition venues, using professional baseball and other sports as a reference. (March 11)
As hotels suffer from a sharp drop in guests due to the coronavirus pandemic, those in Tokyo are trying to survive by offering various new services to create demand.
Such services — including long-stay plans and rooms for teleworking — are being launched by some hotels to address a significant decrease in the number of both overseas and domestic guests, the latter due to locals refraining from going out.
SOLD OUT IN 2½ HOURS
Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, began offering a long-term accommodation plan called “Kurasu @ the HOTEL” (Living in the hotel) on Feb. 22. Sixteen rooms are allocated to the plan, with room rates starting from ¥210,000 for 30 nights with breakfast.
On this plan, hotel toiletries such as shampoo and toothbrushes are provided only on the first day and room cleaning and towel changing services are provided twice a week. Guests using this plan can also use a meeting room for up to two hours a day. The meeting rooms, which are hotel rooms with the beds removed, are equipped with desks, chairs, a whiteboard, a projector and like.
As there is no expectation of foreigners visiting Japan for
the time being due to the pandemic, the hotel operator said it began considering the longterm stay plan in summer last year in an attempt to create new demand.
“Shinjuku is easily accessible [to many places] and we hear many people saying that they want to make it a base for their daily life and business,” said a person in charge of public relations at the hotel. “Unlike rental properties, [this long-stay plan] allows you to easily live in the city center without having to pay move-in fees, such
as a deposit and key money [that goes to your landlord].”
The plan, which will be offered until May 15, sold out in 2½ hours when it was launched.
For day-use guests, the hotel offers rooms for teleworking. Such rooms are equipped with desks for work and printers and the hotel accept reservations for a minimum of two hours.
SERVICED APARTMENT PLAN
The Imperial Hotel in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, will launch a serviced
apartment plan for long-term stays from March 15.
For the new business, three floors of its tower building were renovated to create 99 rooms, which account for about 10% of total guest rooms at the hotel. The monthly rent for 30 nights starts from ¥360,000. The plan, which allows guests to stay until July 15, sold out on the first day reservations were accepted.
As part of this service, bread for breakfast will be provided free of charge in the apartments’ communal space. Guests are also able to use laundry machines and microwaves freely, in addition to training machines and the hotel pool.
The hotel posted a net loss of ¥8.6 billion in its consolidated results between April and December last year, a huge loss compared with the ¥3 billion profit it logged the previous year. Net sales fell by 61.6% year on year to ¥16.6 billion. The room occupancy rate has dropped and remains around 10%.
“You can lead a comfortable life by using the distinctive services provided by the hotel,” said a person in charge. “We’re expecting demand for teleworking and using it as a second home.”
CHECK-IN AT ALL HOURS
Prince Hotels, headquartered in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, is offering a plan to fit the behavioral changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The plan, which is offered at its eight hotels in Tokyo, allows guests to check in at any hour of the day or night and stay for up to 10 hours.
After launching the plan in January, the hotel had received bookings for about 3,300 rooms by Feb. 22.
The plan is especially popular among workers, including those working remotely who use it from the morning. It is also popular among those who miss the last train because railway companies are moving up the times, according to a person in charge at the hotel operator. (March 9)
MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam — Water levels in the Mekong River have been dropping, wreaking havoc on local agricultural and fishing industries. The rapid decline is thought to have been precipitated by Chinese dam construction upstream on this major river that originates in China and runs through five Southeast Asian countries before emptying into the South China Sea. As the river dries up, so does the livelihood of the river basin residents, who are increasingly being left high and dry.
‘THE SOIL HAS DIED’
In late January, Tien, 35, gazed up at a coconut tree that had seemingly stopped growing: “Even the fruit has shrunk. What are we supposed to do now?”
For decades, Tien’s family made their living growing coconut along the Mekong River tributary town of Giong Trom in southern Vietnam. But in recent years, the trees began to wither as salt seeped into the soil, deposited by sea water that intrudes up into the delta, overpowering the weakened Mekong.
Sales of coconuts, which used to average 10 million dong (about ¥45,000) per month, dropped to a mere 1 million dong (about ¥4,500) over the entirety of last year. Tien said, “The rice crop in this area has been terrible, too. It’s as if the soil has died.”
Only farmed fish were seen for sale in the fish market in the Vietnamese city of Cao Lanh, near the Cambodian border. A woman who works as a wholesaler at the market said, “We hardly get wild fish anymore.” The influx of seawater has altered the ecosystem, and fish are no longer caught on the previous scale.
The Mekong Delta accounts for over 50% of Vietnam’s rice production and had been the seat of flourishing fruit and fish industries. Yet drought and salination reached historically dire proportions
during the dry spell from 2019 to 2020, affecting 41,900 hectares of rice paddies and 6,650 hectares of fruit orchards, according to the Vietnamese agricultural authorities.
POINTING TO CHINA
The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental organization made up of four countries in the basin — Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — issued a statement on Feb. 12 warning that water levels have fallen to an alarming level. Citing a hydroelectric dam in China’s Yunnan Province as a root cause, the commission exhorted China to heed its negative impact on the river ecosystem and jeopardization of livelihoods in the basin.
This was the first time the MRC has criticized China by name. The Chinese side admitted that it had temporarily closed the dam to store water, but there is still no indication that they have taken any fundamental steps to rectify the
issue.
As the situation is unlikely to improve, some residents have started to abandon farming and fishing altogether. Tran Van Luc, 46, the vice principal of a technical college near Cao Lanh who teaches agriculture, said: “When advising students on future career paths, we do not recommend rice farming, which is particularly susceptible to the effects of salination.”
There have even been reports of entire fishing villages laying down their gear and switching to other industries because the catch has been poor.
U.S.-CHINA COMPETITION
The Mekong River has become the latest arena in a rivalry between China and the United States that has spilled over from the South China Sea. In response to China’s attempts to make inroads in the river basin nations through developmental aid, countries such as the United States and Australia have also been stepping up their own financial contributions in the region.
In 2016, China held a summit attended by leaders from the four MRC member states and their official dialogue partner, Myanmar, which resulted in the creation of a huge financing framework for the development of social infrastructure in the basin nations. As the MRC receives backing from the United States, Japan and Europe, China has sought to build its own relationships with the four member states and Myanmar in a way that skirts the official auspices of the MRC itself.
China has so far refused to provide detailed data on its water usage. According to Reuters, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a foreign ministers’ meeting with the five countries in February last year that a lack of rain was the main cause of the drought in the region and that China had also suffered from it. His comments tacitly rebutted the possibility that the Mekong’s decline had been caused by Chinese dam development.
The United States has proved more eager to investigate the impact of China’s dam development. It has also been pressuring the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes the Mekong River basin countries, to push back against China.
Last September, the United States launched the Mekong-U.S. Partnership as a framework for regional cooperation with the five basin countries and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the partnership’s first meeting, held online, to criticize China. The U.S. State Department last December announced a plan to monitor China’s use of dams through satellite photos and other means.
According to Vietnamese state media, the United States pledged last year that it would contribute $153 million (about ¥16.1 billion) to support the basin countries. Australia is also due to launch a program to provide 30 million Australian dollars (about ¥2.5 billion) in aid over the next eight years starting as early as this month. (March 10)