Photo/Illutration COVID-19 grants covered 50 million yen of the total cost of 90 million yen to build the “Fukui titan” dinosaur monument in Minami-Echizen, Fukui Prefecture. (Junichi Kamiyama)

Local governments have used so-called COVID-19 grants to renovate toilets, hold fireworks displays, build a roaring dinosaur statue and undertake other projects that seem unrelated to the pandemic, an Asahi Shimbun study found.

The grants were provided to revitalize local economies that were hammered by the novel coronavirus.

Many of the local governments’ plans submitted to the central government for the grants revolved around outdoor activities, the Asahi analysis showed.

At least 326 projects were related to camping aimed at avoiding crowding, 271 were cycling-related initiatives and 159 plans involved fireworks events.

After COVID-19 started to spread nationwide, the government established the grants in April 2020. The total budget for the grants was planned at 18.3 trillion yen ($121.6 billion) over three years.

The first emergency measures, funded by grants worth 8.6 trillion yen, included support for restaurants and businesses that shortened their operating hours based on local government requests.

But later, local governments were allowed to use the grants at their discretion, depending on the regional situation, for a wide range of activities categorized as “COVID-19 measures.”

In fiscal 2020, 3.7 trillion yen was allocated for these local independent projects. The following fiscal year, the amount was reduced to 1 trillion yen.

Measures to deal with rising prices were also added for the COVID-19 grants.

Urahoro town in Hokkaido submitted a plan to use the grant for Wi-Fi installation at campgrounds. Seiyo city in Ehime Prefecture said it would renovate Japanese-style toilets into Western-style ones, and Kunisaki, Oita Prefecture, planned to buy rental bicycles.

The grants were also allocated for 129 projects to illuminate deserted main streets and to light up buildings.

DINOSAUR MONUMENT

Perhaps the most perplexing “COVID-19 measure” can now be seen and heard at the parking lot of the Nanjo Service Area on the Hokuriku Expressway in Minami-Echizen, Fukui Prefecture.

When sensors there detect a person, a dinosaur monument around 6 meters tall and 10 meters long moves its head closer to the visitor and roars. If the visitor brings fake food close to the statue’s mouth, it snorts.

The monument, named “Fukui titan” after a dinosaur that once lived in Fukui Prefecture, was completed in 2022.

The prefecture is known for the highest number of fossils excavated in Japan and has promoted itself as Dinosaur Kingdom.

The cost of the monument ballooned mainly because of the elaborate piping work involved and the need to make it strong enough to withstand the weight of snow.

Of the total cost of 90 million yen, 50.76 million yen came from the COVID-19 grants. The prefectural budget covered the remaining 40 million yen or so.

Fukui prefectural government budgets had previously covered the total costs of around 70 million yen for three dinosaur monuments built at the west exit of JR Fukui Station in 2015.

In 2019, before the pandemic, the Fukui government announced plans to build the roaring dinosaur monument in the prefecture’s only service area.

Officials had not decided how to pay for the monument. But after the central government announced the COVID-19 grants, they decided to use those funds, the prefectural government said.

According to regulations, the grants should not be used for infrastructure development and other projects unrelated to COVID-19 measures.

However, an official from the Fukui prefectural government’s dinosaur strategy office said, “This is one of the tourism promotion projects.”

The official highlighted the success of the monument, saying tourist numbers in Minami-Echizen in 2022, the year the monument was built, increased by 95 percent over the previous year.

(This article was written by Ryoma Komiyama, Yoichi Yonetani, and Junichi Kamiyama.)

Related News