TOKYO: Sixty-year-old Yashiro Haga is folding his Tokyo noodle ramen shop after 15 years in December, unable to overcome the prospect of a lasting customer slump due to the coronavirus crisis.
Small and mid-sized businesses like Haga's noodle bar employ about 70per cent of Japan's workers and account for 99.7per cent of the total number of enterprises, according to government data, leading some to worry that a COVID-19 resurgence could trigger an increasing number of layoffs among small firms.
"Many ramen shops won't appear in any figures when they're closing down because they're small, privately owned businesses," said Haga, who has gone without salary since April. Graphic: Japan's ramen shop bankruptcies are rising, https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/JAPAN-BANKRUPTCY/ygdvzbbkwvw/chart.pngAnother reason why experts say statistics underestimate the true impact of the pandemic on ramen shops is that winding down is expensive due to requirements from landlords to leave the stores stripped down after a six-month notice period.
Those were followed by a wave of noodle chains closing outlets, and now some places with younger owners are shutting down, said Yamamoto, who has eaten at more than 10,000 noodle shops.
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