Sino-Japanese relations have become increasingly tense, and the Japanese tourism industry was the first to be “shot”. A tour bus company lost more than 30 million yen (approximately HK$1.49 million) due to the cancellation of a large number of Chinese tour groups in recent days. After some netizens traced it, they found that the tour bus company was originally run by Chinese, making the whole incident a disguised “Chinese boycotting the Chinese”. The businessmen involved were very innocent.
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The tour bus company involved recently told the Japanese media that it received a large number of cancellation notices from November 16 to 20, all citing “the impact of the international situation”, resulting in the loss of more than 60 group business in just five days, involving more than 30 million yen. The person in charge of the company said frankly that European and American tourists usually only visit during the peak season. Winter is the off-season, and Chinese tourists have become the main force in the market. In the past few years, half to 60% of the tourists from December to February came from China. Now, there has been a sudden “sudden stop”, describing the company as facing pressure to survive.
After the incident was exposed, netizens conducted in-depth inquiries about the company’s background and discovered that the tour bus fleet was actually affiliated with “East Nippon International Travel Service Co., Ltd.” It was established in 2008 with a registered capital of 98 million yen. It focuses on the Chinese market and has offices in Hong Kong and China. It has set up a branch in mainland China and operates under the name “Good Travel Japan” in mainland China, providing “one-stop ground services” such as private customization, chartered cars, hotels, tour guides, translations, port transfers, medical tourism, etc. The representative director is named Xie Shanpeng, which can be described as very innocent.
Some netizens said: “Chinese travelers do not go to Japan, as a result, the Chinese travel agency died first.”
In fact, Chinese capital already occupies an important position in Japan’s tourism ecosystem. For example, Ishiwa Hot Spring in Yamanashi Prefecture is known as the “Back Garden of Tokyo,” and about a quarter of local hotels have been acquired by Chinese capital. There are Chinese-funded express stores in the neighborhoods near Dotonbori in Osaka, providing services for tourists to send goods back to China. Many employees at Kyoto drugstores speak fluent Mandarin. In addition, in recent years, there have been string B&Bs run by Chinese groups in Tokyo, offering one-stop services of “group meals, accommodation, and tour guides.” In other words, Japan’s tourism industry will certainly be affected by China’s sudden travel ban, but “it may not necessarily be the Japanese” who will be affected first. In addition to bosses bearing the brunt, Mandarin-speaking international students, hotel receptionists, and tour guides may face an impact on their livelihoods.
In addition to mainland businessmen, many Hong Kong people have also been keen to invest in the Japanese tourism industry in recent years. Among them, Yang Guanhua, the famous “Huaji Positive Energy” and founder of Century 21 China Properties, acquired the Japanese real estate developer “Sunshine Co., Ltd.” for more than 1 billion yen (approximately HK$73 million) in 2020. At that time, Yang Guanhua expressed his hope to integrate its real estate, B&B, catering and brokerage services in Japan through the acquisition. Sunshine Co., Ltd. has residential and B&B projects in Minato-ku, Tokyo and Chuo-ku, Osaka. Yang Guanhua often holds property lectures to introduce how to “create passive income.”
