New panda cub ‘to bring $242m boost’
OSAKA: A recently born giant panda cub is expected to bring a 26.7 billion yen ($242 million) economic boost to the Japanese capital, according to a university professor.
The giant panda cub born on Monday at the Ueno Zoological Gardens “will bring as big of an impact as a professional baseball team winning a title,” estimates Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus of theoretical economics at Kansai University in Osaka Prefecture.
Miyamoto calculated an economic impact of some 23 billion yen on Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan when the Sendai-based Rakuten Eagles baseball team won the Pacific League title for the first time in 2013, but the estimate for the upcoming burst of “pandanomics” exceeded that figure.
In assessing the magnitude of the potential economic bump, Miyamoto looked at the increased visitor rates at Ueno zoo in 1972 when giant pandas were exhibited in Japan for the first time.
At the time, the number of visitors passing through the gates jumped 47.2% between fiscal 1972 and fiscal 1973.
Miyamoto suggested that the new arrival could draw about 5,657,000 people to the zoo in fiscal 2017, up over 1.8 million from the preceding year.
He determined the expected economic windfall by calculating admission fees and other spending by day trippers and overnight guests as well as wage increases for employees at facilities concerned.
Several panda cubs were recently born at Adventure World in Shirahama, in western Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture, but Miyamoto pointed out that Ueno zoo’s new cub would bring a bigger boost due to the larger population in the capital.