Japan reopens with shuttered shops, hotel staff shortages

AS JAPAN throws open its doors to visitors this week, after more than two years of pandemic isolation, hopes for a tourism boom face tough headwinds amid shuttered shops and a shortage of hospitality workers.

From Tuesday, Japan is reinstating visa-free travel to dozens of countries, ending some of the world’s strictest border controls to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is counting on tourism to help invigorate the economy and reap some benefits from the yen’s slide to a 24-year low.

Arata Sawa is among those eager for the return of foreign tourists, who previously comprised up to 90% of the guests at his traditional inn.

“I’m hoping and anticipating that a lot of foreigners will come to Japan, just like before Covid,” said Sawa, the third-generation owner of the Sawanoya ryokan in Tokyo.

Just over half a million visitors have come to Japan in 2022, compared with a record 31.8 million in 2019. The government had a goal of 40 million in 2020, timed with the Summer Olympics until both were upended by the coronavirus.

Kishida said last week that the government was aiming to attract 5 trillion yen (about R600 billion) in annual tourist spending. But that goal might be too ambitious for a sector that has atrophied during the pandemic.

Hotel employment slumped 22% between 2019 and 2021, according to government data.

Spending from overseas visitors was set to reach only 2.1 trillion yen by 2023 and would not exceed precovid levels until 2025, wrote Nomura Research Institute economist Takahide Kiuchi in a report.

Flag carrier Japan Airlines Co had seen inbound bookings triple since the border-easing announcement, president Yuji Akasaka said last week, according to the Nikkei newspaper. Even so, international travel demand would not fully recover until around 2025, he added.

Narita Airport, Japan's biggest international airport some 70km from Tokyo, remains eerily quiet, with about half its 260 shops and restaurants shuttered.

“It’s like half a ghost town,” said 70-year-old Maria Satherley from New Zealand, gesturing at the Terminal 1 departure area.

Satherley, whose son lives on the northern island of Hokkaido, said she would like to return with her granddaughter this winter but probably would not because the child was too young to be vaccinated, a prerequisite for tourists entering Japan.

“We’re just going to wait till next year,” she said.

Amina Collection Co had shut its three souvenir shops at Narita and was unlikely to reopen them until next spring, said president Sawato Shindo.

The company relocated staff and supplies from the airport to other locations in its 120-shop chain and refocused on domestic tourism during the pandemic. “I don't think there’s going to be a sudden return to the pre-pandemic situation,” he said.