NAHA (Okinawa Pref.): The 2023 men’s FIBA Basketball World Cup, co-hosted by Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, generated economic ripple effects worth 10.72 billion yen in Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost Japan prefecture said in a preliminary report on Friday.

The World Cup games in Japan were held in Okinawa.

The preliminary figure turned out to be much higher than some 6.27 billion yen estimated by the Japan Basketball Association before the World Cup, which ran from late August to early September last year.

By industry, the economic effects were the largest in the hotel sector, at 1.74 billion yen, followed by business services, including advertising services, at 1.67 billion yen, air transportation and other related services, at 1.66 billion yen, and the restaurant sector, at 1.11 billion yen.

Some 126,000 fans attended the World Cup games in Okinawa — around 39,000 from the prefecture, about 76,000 from other parts of Japan and some 10,000 from abroad.

“There were bigger effects than we had expected,” Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said at a press conference on Friday. “It was confirmed that the World Cup had no small effect in each field of the prefectural economy.”

The governor added, “We’d like to analyze the data in further detail and utilize (the findings) in promoting the development of Okinawa’s economy as a whole.”

JIJI Press