Foreign visitors thin on ground during key season

TOKYO - As Japan enters its annual cherry blossom festival season, tourists are heading elsewhere, scared off by fears of radiation from a nuclear crisis that erupted hard on the heels of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Tokyo, with its sleek shops and high-end restaurants, has long been a favorite destination for wealthy tourists, particularly those from Japan's faster-growing neighbors such as China.

The crisis around the crippled Fukushima power plant and reports of radiation in food have sparked a wave of cancellations by foreign visitors, dealing another blow to airlines, stores and restaurants in an economy already smarting from weak domestic consumption.

As the tourists stay away, it will also be bad news for department store operators Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings and Matsuya Co, as well as electronics retailer Laox Co, all popular with visitors.

"Sales to overseas tourists, especially the Chinese, of high-end goods and personal electronics have been growing, but that will certainly stop," said Takayuki Suzuki, a retail analyst at Primo Research Japan.

"The increased levels of radiation ... have raised many fears, so I see many tourists avoiding Japan for a year, at least," he said.

In the upscale Ginza neighborhood, a major tourist draw for its sprawling department stores and expensive boutiques, the crowds were noticeably thinner this weekend ahead of Monday's national holiday.

"We get a lot of visitors from China, Russia and other places during the cherry blossom season, but after the tragic destruction it's hard to see many tourists coming this year," said Shigeyuki Ando, manager of the Ginza branch of Ando Cloissone, a boutique selling pricey traditional ceramics.

The shop usually makes up to 10 percent of its sales from foreigners in the peak season, another manager at the store said, adding he had seen only a trickle of European visitors over the weekend, and no Chinese.

Reuters