NAHA--Kokusai Street is normally a huge tourist attraction because of its many restaurants and gift shops, but now the area here is almost deserted because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Although Okinawa Prefecture had only had seven confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of March 26, the ramifications from reduced tourist traffic are all too apparent in central Naha. 

Areas normally bustling with foreign tourists and Japanese students on school trips are mostly empty.

The situation is so dire a rental car company filed for bankruptcy protection and other tourism-related companies are increasingly worried if they will survive.

“The degree to which visitors have fallen off is something that we have never experienced, even after the 9/11 terrorist attack or the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers,” said restaurateur Sawami Uehara, 65.

Uehara normally operates an Okinawa restaurant in the Makishi Public Market. The restaurant was opened by her parents in 1955, and she took over about 20 years ago.

The Makishi Public Market began a major reconstruction project in July 2019, so Uehara set up a temporary restaurant nearby. While she initially experienced a drop in customers, the numbers began improving thanks in large part to the increase of foreign tourists.

But the coronavirus outbreak has dealt a major blow to business.

“The only thing I can do is to keep on smiling and urging customers to enter, while holding the belief that the outbreak will end in time,” Uehara said.

'SHOCKING' DROP IN TOURISM

Tourism in Okinawa had been surging. Until last year, Okinawa was breaking its own tourism records every year for six years consecutively. In fiscal 2018, it reached the 10 million visitor mark.

Of that figure, foreign tourists accounted for about 3 million and tourism revenues reached 734 billion yen ($6.8 billion). Travelers from China and South Korea made up about 40 percent of foreign tourists.

But the number of foreign tourists in February fell to 61,000, a decrease of 75 percent from February 2019, according to an announcement by the Okinawa prefectural government on March 25. Chinese visitors plummeted by 99 percent, while those from South Korea decreased by 90 percent.

Hiroyuki Arakaki, the president of New Step, a Naha-based company that operates rental car agencies, submitted bankruptcy papers to the Naha District Court before addressing the media on March 23.

“The decrease in tourists is just too large,” he said. “This is a true shock.”

His company is facing debt close to 400 million yen.

In the past, the company had monthly sales of between 20 million and 30 million yen, with about 20 percent of its customers from Taiwan. But the number of visitors from Taiwan fell dramatically in February, and so far in March there have been none.

Arakaki is seeking to rehabilitate his company while keeping his staff of 27 workers. But he appeared very pessimistic throughout the news conference.

“This has been like a one-two punch along with the worsening of ties with South Korea (last year),” he said.

His lawyer, Kanetoshi Yoseda, said, “With the decrease in inbound visitors, my impression is that the Okinawa economy is suddenly worsening.”

Karry Kanko Co., based in Tomigusuku, has a fleet of 30 buses, but only 10 percent have been in use, due mainly to a lack of foreign cruise ships anchoring in Okinawa. The company is only managing to survive through the local residents taking regular bus routes.

The company has 30 employees, but 10 are being asked to stay at home because there is not enough work. Company officials are preparing to submit an application for government subsidies given to companies that retain employees even while their business operations are put on hold.

 “It still remains to be seen if the coronavirus will be brought under control first or our business operations hit a roadblock first," said the company president, Kosei Kagawa. "I only have worries because I have no idea what the future holds.”

On March 10, 12 business organizations in Okinawa held an emergency meeting where it came out that, among the bad news, only about 20 percent of hotel rooms in Naha and Onna village were booked.

To soften the blow to the local economy, Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki on March 13 lifted his earlier request to postpone events sponsored by the prefectural government. He also expressed his intention to put together a supplementary budget of about 10 billion yen.

“This is an emergency situation that just cannot be ignored,” Tamaki said.

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS SUSPENDED

Meanwhile, a new runway at Naha Airport was open on March 26, but all international flights out of the airport had been suspended just two days earlier.

The second runway increases the airport's capacity by 1.8-fold, allowing for a total of 240,000 annual landings and takeoffs, up from a previous level of 135,000.

Construction of the second runway began back in 2014 and came with a total price tag of 207.4 billion yen.

Tamaki had said in a statement that he expected the new runway to contribute greatly to the development of Okinawa by providing a boost to tourism, the distribution industry and through promoting the development of outlying islands.

(Shohei Okada contributed to this article.)