Western Japan Rain Affects Even Little Damaged Hiroshima Areas

July 27, 2018

Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Pref.- The recent torrential rain mainly in western Japan is causing problems in Hiroshima Prefecture even in areas that avoided major damage, including an island home to a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Based on a sample survey, the Hiroshima prefectural government estimates that a total of 180,000 people canceled accommodation reservations across the prefecture due to the disaster, causing 4.5 billion yen in revenue drops.

With local train lines of West Japan Railway Co. or JR West, cut off by the disaster, accommodations in little damaged areas are also facing cancellations, including those on Miyajima, an island in the city of Hatsukaichi that is home to Itsukushima Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

According to the Hatsukaichi municipal government, the number of people who visited the island on ferries between July 1 and Sunday dropped nearly 30 pct from the same period last year.

The Miyajima Tourist Association has decided to cancel a firework festival that usually draws some 300,000 people, because it is difficult to secure transport for visitors.

JR West usually operates special trains on the day of the annual festival. The association had planned to set off fireworks to commemorate the lives lost in the rain disaster in this year's festival, scheduled for Aug. 25.

The company, however, cannot secure extra trains going to the city of Hiroshima on the night of the event because of its inability to bring in train cars from outside Hiroshima Prefecture due to the effects of the disaster, association officials said.

While the association has postponed the fireworks before due to typhoons, it is the first time it has had to call off the event.

"We can't help it. Visitors' safety comes first," a disappointed association official said.

The disaster has also dealt a blow to Kure, another city in the prefecture, where the JR Kure Line and other transportation services are disconnected.

The city is where "Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni" (In This Corner of the World), an animation film depicting Hiroshima Prefecture during World War II, is set.

Thanks to this, the city enjoyed an increase in the number of visitors, including movie fans, after the film's box-office debut in November 2016.

The Irifuneyama Memorial Museum, which includes the former official residence of the commander in chief of now defunct Kure Naval Station, designated as an important cultural asset, saw its number of visitors rise in fiscal 2017.

Although visitors decreased slightly this fiscal year, a television drama version of the movie started airing in July and an art gallery next to the museum began an exhibition displaying original drawings from the anime film.

Expectations were running high that the moves would boost the number of tourists again.

But visitors to the facility decreased drastically while the central part of the city, where the museum is located, suffered only minor damage from the heavy rain.

The Kure Wartime Museum, also known as the Yamato Museum, is in a similar state. "I'm worried whether the situation will drag on," a museum official said.

Transportation to Kure is limited largely to ferries from Hiroshima Port in the city of Hiroshima and buses from Hiroshima Airport in Mihara.

"We hope people will visit (the city) despite the ongoing state of inconvenient transportation," another Yamato Museum official said. Jiji Press