“Anger” with virus - sushi shop in Tokyo was in trouble with no customers

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

ウイルスに「怒り」――東京のすし店も客足途絶え苦境に

2020.03.27 Fri posted at 18:00 JST

東京（ＣＮＮ） 新型コロナウイルス感染拡大の影響で、東京都内のすし店や魚市場もすっかり客足が途絶え、苦境に陥っている。

渋谷区の鮨（すし）〇✕（まるばつ）は、十数席の小さなすし店だ。店主の杉浦秀樹さんはＣＮＮとのインタビューで「とにかく客が来なくなった」「とても悲しい。ウイルスに怒りを感じる」と語った。店の売り上げは半減している。

杉浦さんはこの９年間ほとんど休むことなく、早朝の市場に通ってきた。最初は築地、２０１８年に移転してからは豊洲へ。仕入れる魚の種類と価格を見て日替わりメニューを考える。

だがいつも来ていた昼休みの会社員もランチ会の主婦も、ぱったりと顔を見なくなった。昨年１０月の消費税引き上げで低迷していた商売に、新型ウイルスが追い打ちをかけた。

東京を拠点とするエコノミストのイェスパー・コール氏は、国内消費や外国からの観光客など「需要の主なけん引役が事実上、全てストップした」と指摘する。景気への効果が期待されていた東京五輪も延期が決まった。

杉浦さんは「この状態が続いたら店をしまうしかない」と話している。

市場移転後も残った築地場外市場は、かつて観光名所として多くの客でにぎわっていたが、一部の店では売り上げが７～８割も落ちた。

２３年前からここの干物店で働いているという男性は、「世界中からの客があふれて道を通り抜けることさえできなかった」と振り返り、「今はひどいものだ」と嘆いた。

南米コロンビアから３年ぶりに訪れたという客も「歩けないほどのにぎわいだったのに」と話す。

路地裏のすし店はこの１～２カ月で何軒も店じまいした。コール氏によると、事態は今後少なくとも３～４カ月、さらに悪化する恐れがあるという。

Translation

Tokyo (CNN) - Due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, sushi shops and the fish market in Tokyo were suffering as customers had completely stopped coming.

Sushi XO (Marubatsu) in Shibuya was a small sushi restaurant with slightly more than ten seats. The owner Hideki Sugiura in an interview with CNN said, "The customer has just stopped coming”; "It's very sad. I feel angry with the virus". His store sales had been halved.

Sugiura had almost no break for the past nine years and went to the market early in the morning. At first went to Tsukiji, then to Toyosu as the market was moved in 2018. He decided on the daily menu based on the type and price of fish bought in.

However, the faces of both office workers at lunchtime, and the housewife at the lunch party who had always been visiting could no longer be seen. The already weak business due to the consumption tax hike last October was further dealt a blow by the new virus.

Jesper Cole, a Tokyo-based economist, pointed out that domestic consumption and foreign tourists etc. as "the main driver of demand has stopped completely”. The Tokyo Olympics, which had been expected to have a positive effect on the economy, had also been postponed.

Sugiura said, "If this situation continues, I have to close the store."

Tsukiji Outer Market that remained after the market relocation was once a tourist attraction, the sales of some stores had fallen by 70-80%.

A man who had been working in a dry store there since 23 years ago recalled that "customers from all over the world were filling up the street that one couldn't even pass through it" and lamented that "now it's so bad."

A visitor from Colombia who visited for the first time in three years said "it was so busy that I even couldn't walk."

Several sushi restaurants in the back alley were closed in the past month or two. According to Cole, things could get worse for at least the next three to four months.

              So, in Tokyo the restaurant business that relies on tourism is hard hit by the new virus. The weak economic activities in Tokyo is only the tip of an iceberg in forecasting the global economic situation in the months to come. I notice that Japan is slow in closing its airports to foreign visitors to prevent the new virus. Japan's politicians are having a difficult time to strike a balance between the benefits of avoiding overloading its public health care system, and maintaining its business activities nation-wide.