One year after the earthquake in 2011, is slowly recovering Japan. However, domestic tourism, as many Japanese were devastated, haunted by survivor guilt, choose to stay home and foreign tourists continue to shun the country because of fear of radiation. Nagano, Japan, a large ski resort known for its snow monkeys who are struggling to boost its tourism industry.
The number of tourists on the slopes of the Japanese Alps this winter is dramatic. In 2010, 300,000 foreign tourists visited the prefecture of Nagano, site of many events in the 1998th Olympic Winter Games
Hiroshi Nishimura, deputy director of international tourism in Nagano, said that last year since the earthquake, tsunamis, nuclear fears, he has a 80 percent drop in tourism.
"Nationally, tourism has declined," said Hiroshi. "Foreign tourists have stopped coming, not because the earthquake, but because of the Fukushima Daiichi [and] radiation. For people from abroad, it looks like Nagano is not far from Fukushima, it affects us more. "
Tomijiro Sato is the President of the Villa Ichinose, a family hotel near Nagano race Olympic ski jump. Seventy-year-Sato opened the hotel with his father during the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964. His village and others nearby were shaken by a 6.0 magnitude aftershock after the first earthquake last year.
With about 20 percent of the economy depending on tourism in Nagano, were closed for at least 15 local hotels. Sato has never known such hard times, even after the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, which killed 6,500 people.
"We have a good hotel and staff," said Sato. "We have to survive by word of mouth. We did a guest after the earthquake, and some hotels. But the government offered loans, which is very useful."
In addition to providing loans, the government has budgeted about $ 15 million to ease concerns among potential foreign tourists on the possible dangers of visiting Japan. There is a consensus that the support of the effect of the economic recovery of tourism from Japan to help.
"With more visitors could help us, help the affected areas and build the nation again," said Hiroshi.
But with the recent volatility in global economic markets, the Japanese yen safely. Its value increases, means Japan is getting more expensive for foreign tourists who transform their pocket money in other currencies.
It seems also some uncertainty about how best to tourism in the context of national reconstruction prefer. The Japanese Parliament has recently refused to provide budget authority for a plan of $ 14 million to 10,000 free airline tickets to foreign visitors. There were concerns about the value and would be the moral example of such an offer, given the increased destruction remains pervasive.
It is not only the number of overseas visitors dropped sharply. Domestic leisure and business travel to Nagano fell by 60 percent, according to Nishimura.
"Start [Japanese], not to amuse the trend will have after the earthquake, because many people were killed and wounded. Traveling [understandable] arrested and have fun," said Nishimura.
Disorder and PTSD is not the fault of the victims of natural disasters unusual remarks, Dr. William Helton, a professor of psychology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
"We do not like radical change, and there is no way around this problem, this is a radical change," said Helton. "It may lead us to rethink how its things. There is no doubt that we live, which represents the emotional distress of the people. "
Helton has studied the effects of the earthquake in 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand. He noted that, as the weather can be a great healer, the recovery of post-traumatic stress in earthquake-prone areas can be problematic.
"They say," the syndrome of PTSD. "Well, we are still using replicas in Christchurch," said Helton. "It's not really" post ". People who live outside of a zone of earthquake does not necessarily understand, this is not an event. "
Japan has suffered immensely by the disasters of March 2011. Its inhabitants continue to mourn thousands of victims, and many economic sectors will also fight for stimulus $ 15000000000 takes shape.
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