Author: Fu Zhuhui
Tokyo people walked on the streets of cherry blossoms in March this year. (Reuters)
Japan relaxes border control measures starting Tuesday (October 11), resumes personal free travel and visa-free visits to Japan, and is expected to welcome a large number of foreign tourists. However, Japanese industry players are mixed, happy that they can finally bid farewell to the long tourism winter and welcome the resurgence of overseas tourists; they worry that Japan has always had insufficient staff, which has become more severe after this COVID-19 epidemic.
Japanese authorities want to revive the tourism industry, but face resistance from a shortage of staff. The survey company Imperial data released the survey results of 26,000 companies in 50 industries. The tourism industry faces the most serious staff problems, with 72% of the hotels surveyed confessing that there is insufficient staff.
The seriousness of the tourism industry's manpower shortage problem this year is second only to 2019 before the outbreak. Three years ago, the largest number of inbound tourists in Japan reached 32 million.
On September 13 this year, Japanese people visited Sensoji Temple in Tokyo. (AFP)
Japan's Mount Fuji scenic spot Kawaguchi Lake has always been mainly used to receive foreign groups. A local Japanese hotel operator said in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao: "Of course we want to see overseas tourists come, but we resigned from informal employees during the epidemic, and I am worried that we can't cope. In August, when foreign tourists have not yet entered the country, their business has returned to 50% of the previous epidemic, and we were already facing the pressure of insufficient staff. After the border control was announced, I was worried about the manpower problem and refused to send a group business of more than 100 people."
"Toyo Economics" magazine pointed out that the depreciation of the yen will attract a large number of overseas tourists, but it also weakened the attractiveness of the yen to foreign workers. The sharp decline in the yen against the US dollar will cause foreign workers to "stay away from Japan."
Before the epidemic, Japan's hotel and catering industries relied on international students from Asian countries and foreign workers entering the country in the name of trainees. It can be foreseen that Japan's labor shortage will be more serious than before the epidemic.
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has set a goal to earn 5 trillion yen (about S$49.4 billion) from overseas tourists every year in order to return to the pre-epidemic tourism grand occasion.
After Japan opened its borders and resumed free travel on Tuesday, several foreign tourists lined up to buy tickets at Tokyo Haneda Airport to enter the city of Tokyo. (AFP)
However, there are reports that Japan's tourism industry, which has been stagnant for two years, will not easily recover in a short period of time. On the eve of the authorities lifting border controls, half of the 260 duty-free shops and restaurants at Tokyo Narita International Airport were still locked, making people feel that the Japanese airport, which is about to open its doors, is not energetic enough.
Japan's duty-free shop industry was frustrated during the epidemic and fell like dominoes, while some changed careers and wanted to survive. Amina Collection, which specializes in gift business at Narita Airport, closed three branches during the epidemic. The boss said that since employees have been dispatched to other industries, they are not considering reopening the airport's stores at present.
" Nikkei News " reported that after the authorities announced the opening of the border, the number of incoming tickets for Japanese airline increased by triple. However, Japanese Airlines is not optimistic about the rapid rebound in demand for international flights and tourism, but believes that it will not be fully restored to pre-epidemic levels until 2025.
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