TOKYO: Oriental Land Co. on Wednesday announced a decision to move up the closing time for its Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. between Friday and Jan. 31 in line with the Japanese government’s fresh state of emergency over the novel coronavirus for the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The opening time for the two Disney theme parks in the city of Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, will remain unchanged at 9 a.m., according to the company. Restaurants in the parks will stop offering alcoholic beverages at 7 p.m. The Ikspiari commercial facility, adjacent to the parks, will close at 8 p.m.

Other businesses in the service industry, including restaurant operators and retailers, are also rushing to make their responses as the government is set to decide on the state of emergency covering Tokyo and neighboring Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures on Thursday. Concerns are growing that the restaurant sector, which has already been hit hard by the epidemic since spring last year, may see their earnings deteriorate further.

From Saturday, the Sanrio Puroland theme park in Tama, Tokyo, which features Hello Kitty and other characters, will close at 5 p.m., two hours earlier than normal.

Starting Thursday, the closing time will be moved up to 8 p.m. for all tenant stores, including restaurants, at Lumine Co.’s 15 commercial facilities in Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa for the time being. An official of a major department store operator said, “We’ll have restaurants in our outlets close earlier if requested by authorities to shorten operating hours.”

“Izakaya” pubs, which rely heavily on sales from night-time operations, have also made tough decisions. Watami Co.  said that its some 140 directly run stores in the four prefectures will shorten operating hours or temporarily shut from Friday. Colowide Co., which operates the Amataro and other chains, will also take similar steps.

Meanwhile, restaurant chain operator Skylark Holdings Co. plans to decide its response after confirming details of the government’s policy.

“Gyudon” beef-on-rice bowl restaurants and fast food chain operators have also yet to make decisions because much remains to be seen about the government policy, including the handling of takeout food items.

Takeshi Niinami, president of food and beverage giant Suntory Holdings Ltd., expressed concerns. “Some firms may opt to give up running their operations and close down, and the number of jobless people will increase as a result,” he said.

Among operators of entertainment facilities, Toho Cinemas Ltd., a subsidiary of movie distributor Toho Co. has halted sales of advance tickets for movies scheduled to be screened on Friday and later at its 25 theaters in Tokyo and the three surrounding prefectures.