Tourism and Investment in Japan

  New car sales in Japan decreased by 16.0% in August year on year According to the announcement by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association, the new car sales in Japan in August decreased by 16.0% from the same month of the previous year.   Decrement in sales below the previous year's level is continuing for 11 consecutive months. Customers refrained from going out and avoided to visit car dealers too. Dealers shortened their business hours to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection.  Those prevention measures caused sales from January to August to decrease by 18.6% to 2,930,558 units leaving all Japanese automobile manufacturers in a stringent business environment.  In particular, Isuzu (50.1% decrease), Mitsubishi Motors (45.3% decrease), Nissan (26.4% decrease) and Honda (24.5% decrease) continue to lose their sales by double digits in August. Toyota Motor was down 9.2% and Mazda was down 3.0%.  Suzuki was the only company to increase sales, up 7.1% in the month. 

The new coronavirus continues to cause a serious predicament for Japanese tourism industry According to the Japan Tourism Agency's announcement, the number of guests who stayed at hotels and inns in Japan July 2020 decreased by 56% compared with the same month last year to 22.58 million.  In particular, the total number of foreign guests staying at hotels and other accommodations in Japan was 320,000, astonishing 97.0% decrease compared to the same month last year, continuing worst decline.  As for Japanese tourists, it fell by 45.7%. On the other hand, declining ratio of Japanese tourists improved by 15.5 points in July from 61.2% decrease in June showing a moderate recovery in demand for domestic accommodations.  The occupancy rate of guest rooms is also improving after bottoming in May. It is thought that the eased restraint of movements across prefectures and “Go to Travel Campaign” by the Japanese government started on the July 22 have contributed a recovery in demand. Japa

The Nikkei Stock Average has gyrated in the vicinity of 23,000 yen for a week from September 7 to 11th. Although the market plunged sharply in some volatile movements on Wednesday, it recouped losses completely and closed higher on Friday showing resilience with a generally firm tone as the yen's retreat against the U.S. dollar helped bolster investor’s sentiment after a shaky start following another technology share rout on Wall Street overnight.  Profit-taking was seen across the board at a time due to the depressed US high-tech stocks that have been driving the world stock market higher so far, but the Tokyo market has started rebounding toward the weekend and wrapped up at 23,406 yen, up 201 yen from the previous week. Stock price changes of the Japanese largest companies (Sep.4 - Sep.11(%))  Recruit Holdings     8.1 Nidec Corporation      8.0 Sony     6.1 Daiichi Sankyo     5.8 Keyence     3.3 Fast Retailing   2.1 Chugai Pharmaceutical     1.9 Shin-Etsu Chemi

Discount programs are provided for accommodations and expenditures in Shirakawa-go Shirakawa village in Gifu prefecture is well known for the UNESCO world heritage area, Shirakawa-go, where a number of gassho style houses are preserved in their original form since around 1800.  It is one of Japan's leading tourism destinations with tourists who visited the village having reached 2.15 million last year. However, the spread of new coronavirus infections subdued consumption activities in the village significantly in 2020.  The Japanese government has been promoting “Go to Travel Campaign” to support tourism industry in Japan since July. Village officials hope that the national campaign will improve business conditions for guesthouses, inns and other tourism facilities in the village.  In addition, Shirakawa village has been running “Shirakawa-go accommodation discount campaign” with a total discount of 100 million yen since July 1. In this campaign, accommodation fee will be cut in