Shortly after dawn, Hideki Sugiura moves swiftly through the narrow aisles of Tokyo’s Toyosu Market.
It’s much quieter than usual, and the sushi chef doesn’t need to buy as much fish for his small restaurant, Sushi Marubatsu.
Business is down around 50%, Sugiura says, due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has spread through large parts of Asia and is now gripping Europe and the US, with more than 300,000 cases globally. Japan currently has more than 1,000 confirmed cases, several dozen of whom have died.
“Simply, customers stopped coming,” Sugiura tells CNN. “I’m very sad. I’m angry at the virus.”
Nearly every day for the past nine years, Sugiura has been carrying out his daily ritual at Toyosu — the wholesale section of the famous Tsukiji fish market, which moved to new premises in 2018.
Sugiura creates his daily-changing menu on the fly as he sees what fish is on offer — and at what price. This time, he goes for tuna, salmon, red snapper, yellowtail and shrimp.
His tiny restaurant, which fits about a dozen diners, is in Shibuya, near Tokyo’s famous intersection with a four-way pedestrian crossing. But the majority of his business comes from local Japanese.
“Company workers who used to come in for lunch don’t come at all now,” he says. “And housewives used to come in at lunchtime, but none of them come now.”
He says that business was already hurting before the virus spread, due to an ailing economy that slowed after the Japanese government increased the consumption tax in October.
“We’ve had a de facto shutdown of all the major engines of demand,” says Jesper Koll, a Tokyo-based economist. “That’s consumption, business spending, export of goods and inbound tourism.”
Many businesses had been holding out for the expected economic boost of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, due to be held in July and August this year. But now, the future of the event — and the associated benefits for Tokyo’s retail and tourism industry — looks uncertain due to the pandemic.
Now, the current crisis is pushing Sugiura to consider closing the doors on the restaurant.
“If my business stays this way because of the virus, I cannot operate at all,” he says. “There is no other way but closing it down.”
The impact of the coronavirus is also hurting the original Tsukiji fish market, a hotspot for tourists.
Some of the market vendors tell CNN that their business is down by 70-80%.
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