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A coronavirus outbreak has weighed on the transport and tourism sectors in Japan, including bullet trains, with fears about infection making people reluctant to venture outdoors or share confined spaces with others for long hours. The number of passengers between Feb 1 and 19 of the Shinkansen Line connecting Tokyo and Osaka fell 8% from a year earlier, its operator Central Japan Railway Co said, adding that of those who used other express trains plunged 15%. The pace of decline was the almost same level as was in May 2011, when the nation's economy faced a downturn in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe that March in northeastern Japan. As for the airline field, Narita International Airport Corp said Thursday that the number of passengers who left for China between Feb 1 and 22 plummeted 66.5% from the previous year to 42,400. |
