More Japan News:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/japan-quarantines-3-500-cruise-ship-over-coronavirus-005344287.html


The new of the cruise ship in Yokohama is surprising but I guess not really. I've seen many cruise ships come and go in Yokohama.

The number of cases on the ship now is 10. There are 3,700 or so tourists on the ship. That is 3,700 potential customers to Tokyo and Yokohama, including or before the virus situation, that might have gone to Yokohama China town, about a kilometer or so from where the cruise ship is docked.

No doubt, that the Japanese authorities are doing their best to make sure that the virus is not spread beyond the ship just as those at Haneda and Narita are one full alert, as are all airports in Japan, and everywhere in the world now.

I guess now even cruise ships are going to be inspected even more carefully than before, or more so during the virus crisis.

Again how much is this going to affect tourism in Japan? How many cruise ships are now also going to either cancel trips and or be subject to even more inspections as they enter Japan?

The fallout of this virus crisis seems to be spreading. But how much is truth and how much is media hype. Lets hope the media is responsible, which I sure they are, but then there is unfound rumors on the Internet, which is hard to control.

The number of tourists on the cruise ship, at around 3,700 doesn't sound like a lot, but you compound that will other lost cruise ships and its begins to add up and this compound that with loss of Chinese customers from areas beside just Wuhan and its begins to add up.

A month or two probably is not going to hit the Japanese economy that hard but beyond going into the summer could potentially be something else.

I am always an optimist, and the number of teams around world now working on this virus situation is a good sign. But the problem is how soon that they contain it and how soon before people feel from the fear of what might happen.

Finding a vaccine is one thing, and getting it out  is another, but tempering people's fears about the future is something completely different.

In an economy consumer feeling or sentiment is huge. The idea of people being afraid to travel and spend their disposable income on what they like or want is going to be a big challenge until they feel safe moving and traveling around.

© 2020, Tom Metts, all rights reserved