A view of the city from Shibuya Scramble Square. (Image via Time Out)

Japanese malls and restaurants brace for no tourist Olympics

The upcoming Summer Olympics in Japan was supposed to be a huge business opportunity for malls and restaurants in the country. However, the latest decision of holding the 2021 Summer Olympics without foreign spectators will cancel the plan, or even deal a blow to the industry already struggling due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Years prior to the Summer Olympics, many developers had invested a tremendous amount of yen in building shopping and dining complexes in order to welcome foreign tourists. For example, one of the major investments was made in Shibuya District, Tokyo. Nonetheless, the number of foreign visitors in Japan dropped to almost zero, compared to 32 million in 2019. The Japanese Government was even forced to halt a spending survey

In 2019, about 8 million foreign tourists visited Shibuya, and the number was expected to be 10 million in 2020. However, COVID-19 postponed the Summer Olympics, and the expectation failed. It was estimated that 300 billion yen was rolled out for Shibuya. One of the buildings made from the investment is Shibuya Scramble Square, which opened in 2019. The developer of Shibuya Scramble Square, Tokyu Corp, revealed it spent 110 billion yen on Shibuya alone.

However, the 2021 Summer Olympics will be held without any foreign spectators. The chance for the country and cities to recover from the economic mess due to the state of emergency was almost zero as well.

Source: https://bit.ly/3f4lKsV