KANAZAWA: More than 100 businesses have decided to close in four municipalities in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, since they were hit hard by the massive Noto Peninsula earthquake on Jan. 1, according to local chambers of commerce and industry.

Many business owners are giving up on rebuilding their businesses as the affected areas are experiencing population outflows due to slow progress in reconstruction efforts.

As of May 27, the number of businesses that had decided to close was at least 48 in the city of Suzu, 38 in the city of Wajima, 16 in the town of Noto and 10 in the town of Anamizu.

The Suzu chamber of commerce and industry conducted a survey of 533 businesses in April, and found that 33 of them had already closed, 15 were planning to close, and 87 had suspended operations. As only 44 percent of the surveyed businesses gave valid responses, the chamber’s secretary-general, Yoshinobu Sode, said that the actual numbers of such businesses could be twice as high as the figures in the survey.

The main reason for business closures was shrinking local markets due to population outflows. “Some people decided to close their businesses after dithering as it is uncertain whether sales would recover even if they manage to rebuild their businesses,” Sode said.

In Anamizu, meanwhile, 224 businesses, or about 70 percent of the members of the town’s chamber of commerce and industry, have resumed operations, but their sales are sluggish, except for those in construction and some other sectors.

Fusaji Yoshimura, 76, said he reopened his stationery shop in Anamizu in February, but sales are about 10 percent of what they were before the New Year’s Day earthquake.

The town’s population fell below 7,100 at the end of April. “We cannot have a clear outlook for the future as the birthrate continues to decline,” Yoshimura said. “I don’t want to leave negative assets behind.”

A lack of business successors is another common challenge in the region. “Many businesses took the earthquake as a cue to close as they had no one to take over,” said an official of the Noto chamber of commerce and industry. “The future is uncertain. I think more businesses will close,” the chamber official said.

JIJI Press