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 The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan on March 11, 2011. Although the predominant earthquake damage was found in northeastern Japan, the nation’s entire tourism industry felt the figurative shockwave.
Japanese amusement park attendance dropped in the aftermath of the magnitude 9 Mw quake—the most powerful on record to hit Japan. The earthquake and resulting tsunami left 15,769 dead, 4,227 missing, and 5,929 injured as of a September tally from the National Police Agency. Most of the deadly trauma concentrated in three prefectures (Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi) within the Tohoku region.
Tohoku is one of Japan’s eight regions and is home to roughly 9.5 million people. The resulting tsunami also destroyed seafront communities and caused a near nuclear meltdown at three reactors in Fukushima.
Japan National Tourism Organization Director Kenichiro Ozaki says amusement park attendance was gradually returning to normal levels by the end of the summer. Japan has 24 amusement parks, according to the JNTO website, and Ozaki said a shift in public perception was the biggest damage to those attractions.
“Immediately following the earthquake, video of the tsunami was televised every day, so everyone in the world [might have thought] that all the regions of Japan were damaged. However, the damaged regions only involve several coast regions in Tohoku area,” he says. 
Disney Reaction
Tokyo Disney felt the earthquake. Tremors kept guests at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea on March 11. Park staff gathered guests in large open areas and would not permit anyone to leave for five hours. With about 70,000 guests in the parks, staff distributed food, drinks, rain ponchos, and cardboard for shelter.
Stranded visitors posted videos to YouTube and commented on Twitter throughout the ordeal. New York Post travel writer David Landsel was there, and he tweeted his observation that the entry plaza at DisneySea had “turned into a tent city” and shared other lighthearted anecdotes into the evening (www.twitter.com/davidlandsel). Some images guests posted to Twitter showed pools of water in the Tokyo Disneyland parking lot.
Hiroshi Suzuki, public relations manager with Oriental Land Company (the company that owns the Tokyo Disney properties), says the flooded parking lot was the only structural damage within the resort. The problem resulted from liquefaction of soil beneath the parking lot, and Suzuki says the issue was remedied. The parks didn’t reopen after the earthquake until April 15, more than a month later.
The month following the earthquake and tsunami, JNTO reported the number of foreign visitors to Japan decreased more than 60 percent (in a month-to-month comparison to April 2010), and even Japanese citizens restrained themselves from domestic travel in the earthquake’s immediate aftermath.
Ozaki says accurate mainstream media reports about the damage of the earthquake and tsunami have helped to remedy fear among international tourists that “Japan is dangerous.” As of July, he says, foreign visitor tallies have improved dramatically, though the number of foreign visitors to Japan is down 36 percent in July 2011 compared to July 2010.
Attractions Elsewhere in Japan
While tragedy struck Tohoku, most tourist destinations and amusement parks escaped serious damage. Ozaki says: “In other regions like Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and on, [people] were living life as normal.”
 Osaka in southwestern Japan is more than 500 miles from the quake zone on the opposite side of the main island. The prefecture is home to Universal Studios Japan. Company publicist Noriko Matsushita says the Tohoku earthquake did not make any physical impact on the park, though Universal Studios Japan felt an immediate impact on attendance numbers after the disaster.
“We had been afraid that people would spend less time in leisure after the huge tragedy in this country, but we could find attendance decrease in total markets only in a few months after the earthquake,” Matsushita says. “The local market was OK. Tokyo and most East Japan are already back and rather strong this summer. The number of inbound travelers to all areas of Japan dropped largely after the earthquake, and accordingly the number of Universal Studios Japan’s overseas guests also decreased, but markets are becoming so active again recently that we expect it would gradually recover in a year.”
Amusement parks are common destinations on many foreign visitors’ itineraries in Japan. According to a questionnaire from the Japan National Tourism Organization, 16.9 percent of foreign tourists indicated they visited theme parks last year in Japan (including amusement parks, zoos, and aquariums). Nearly a quarter of respondents said they came to Japan for the theme park, and 8.3 percent of respondents said they visited Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Applying the JNTO questionnaire’s results to the total number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2010 (8,610,000) would suggest that 710,000 visited Japan for amusement parks alone last year, says Kiu Au, supervisor in JNTO’s Hong Kong office.
Outreach to Victims
Matsushita says Universal Studios Japan is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2011, and various special anniversary events are boosting attendance numbers even higher than last year.
She says most of Universal Studios’ domestic visitors come from Kansai and Chubu in Central and Western Japan; domestic guests provide more than 90 percent of admission. She says overseas guests come mostly from eastern Asia such as Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. Following the earthquake, Matsushita says Universal Studios has welcomed increasing numbers of domestic visitors from eastern Japan, especially from earthquake-damaged regions.
“We welcome so many guests from the stricken area every day. The reason why they are here could vary. Some are resting for some time in relatives’ houses in Kansai. Some are forced to move to Kansai because they lost a house. All guests in our park, including Tohoku refugees, are here to escape from reality, laugh, enjoy themselves, and share the wonderful moment. All our employees were reminded of the mission of the entertainment industry,” she says.
“We also work actively to support the people in the areas where the earthquake hit and also the refugees in Kansai,” she continues. “We chartered a helicopter and an air cargo to send materials to Iwate Prefecture a few days after the earthquake. We donated from the revenue of a large charity party. We collected contributions from guests and employees. We sent dozens of volunteers from our employees to the stricken areas in Miyagi Prefecture. We sent characters and entertainers to cheer up people in Tohoku and also to refugees’ meetings in Kansai.”
Tokyo Disney was likewise involved with various community outreach programs in areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami.
Emergency Preparedness
Japan is an earthquake-prone nation, sitting on one of the world’s most active fault lines. Both Universal Studios and Tokyo Disney have emergency preparedness plans in case of a major earthquake. Suzuki says Tokyo Disney conducts training for a range of possible disasters 180 times every year, with scenarios ranging from fires to earthquakes. Staff members are often required to participate in training sessions outside regular operating hours.
Universal Studios Japan has similar precautionary measures in case of unexpected events. “After the earthquake in March, we are reviewing our disaster response manuals to ensure the safety of our guests and employees,” Matsushita says.
The Tohoku region suffered most from the earthquake and tsunami, but JNTO reports that by the summer of 2011, tour groups have resumed visits to Aomori, Miyagi, and other areas in Tohoku.
Consequences from the earthquake linger for many residents of the region. Tens of thousands of people are still sleeping in gymnasiums and other makeshift dormitories. Some towns have only just begun clearing the rubble of collapsed buildings and ruined industries. And during the past summer, beef contaminated with radioactive cesium and other food products containing unsafe radiation were discovered for sale at supermarkets around Japan.
As Japan recovers, amusement parks continue to help lift the spirits of residents. The new Anpanman Park in Sendai marks a positive milestone, moving forward for the battered tourism industry.
Sendai is Tohoku’s most populous city. Anpanman is a popular children’s superhero in Japan, a cartoon character whose head is made of a bun filled with bean jam. Anpanman Park opened in Sendai on July 22, delayed three months from the planned April 22 opening date.
Damage from the earthquake—such as broken windows— forced the operator to delay opening the two-story shopping and entertainment facility, the Sendai Anpanman Children’s Museum and Mall. The Sendai location is Japan’s third Anpanman-themed destination.
“I want to give dreams and smiles to the children who experienced the earthquake,” says Seiko Sugita, manager of the Sendai Anpanman Children’s Museum and Mall.
Doug Meigs is a freelance journalist based in Hong Kong.
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