Chinese make up 80 percent of tourists arriving in Japan during Chinese New Year period in February • Following the deadly virus, Japanese fear for a living

• Concern in Japan

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The Chinese government's ban on foreign nationals from traveling abroad to stop the spread of the Corona virus is more damaging than Japan, because Chinese tourists account for about one-third of all tourists arriving in Japan. Arrive on organized trips.

As of 2015, the Chinese are the largest tourist group coming to Japan. In 2019, 9.59 million tourists arrived in Japan from China, 20 times their number in 2003. By the time of China's departure, there were 1,400 flights between China and Japan each week. A 19 percent increase over the number of flights between countries in the summer season ending in October. The big leap is responsible for the Japanese government, which has decided to facilitate the issuance of visas and the tourism authority, which is responsible for preparing translations into Chinese of everything that can be translated.

The Hutt Bus Tourist Company, which operates independent tours of the Tokyo streets, has announced that it will begin today to disinfect the buses before each tour tour leaves. According to a senior tourism agency of Japan, "we still cannot see the full impact of stopping organized trips from China, but there will certainly be a large drop in the number of tourists from China."

"Obviously this will affect our sales," says the Hankyo department store manager in Osaka. "Most buyers during this period are tourists from China." Japan department stores sales fell 1.4 percent in 2019 compared to 2018, and the reason for the decline was severe weather in summer and hot winter. The absence of Chinese in the shopping season will deepen the crisis in the retail industry.

According to the Japan Times, sales are weak during this period, and only Chinese tourism holds the stores above the red line. Large investment analysts at Nomura Securities estimate that a 10 percent drop in tourists will result in a 0.1 percent drop in Japanese GDP. Events and reducing consumption.

A major international hotel chain official said yesterday that the Chinese travel ban was "disappointing" because it was taking place at a time when Japan is preparing to attract visitors before the Olympic Games. "But we want to respond in moderation," he said. A halt to Chinese tourism will probably mean that Japan will not be able to meet its 40 million tourists a year this year, despite the large numbers of tourists intending to reach the Tokyo Olympics in July.

Another problem in Japan due to the spread of the corona virus is production impairment. Many factories use raw materials and parts made in China, and extending the Chinese New Year's holiday as well as reducing the number of flights can damage the supply chain for factories. In the city of Wuhan, which is the focus of the virus infection, there are manufacturing plants of car manufacturers Nissan and Honda as well as a production plant of French Renault.