Pre-Pandemic Crowds Returning To Parts of Japan

Above, a Yakatabune pleasure boat moored on the Sumida River in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Parts of Japan are seeing crowds returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Now that the coronavirus severity level will be downgraded on May 8, many travel and pleasure businesses are breathing sighs of relief.

The Asahi Shimbun reported:

Indoors and outdoors, on land and over water, bustling crowds returned to Japan well before May 8, when the government will downgrade the severity category of COVID-19.

An estimated 168,000 people attended the two-day Spring Takayama Festival, or Sanno Matsuri, held in mid-April in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, the city said. That was more than triple the attendance of 53,000 last year.

The festival’s main event, a parade of floats, was held for the first time in four years, attracting many tourists from in and out of Japan.

The spread of the novel coronavirus hammered the tourism industry, which is now seeing a rebound toward pre-pandemic levels.

Customers are returning to Yakatabune pleasure boat businesses, which were devastated by the pandemic.

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