Half of hot spring inns in Japan’s Noto remain closed 2 years after quake

Around half of hot spring inns on the Noto Peninsula in central Japan remain closed two years after a

strong earthquake on New Year’s Day

devastated the area, leaving local businesses concerned about a talent drain.

Sake brewing businesses in the affected region of Ishikawa Prefecture facing the Sea of Japan, which was additionally hit by heavy rains in September 2024, are also struggling to recover due to a labour shortage and surging rice prices.

In the Wakura hot spring resort, only nine out of 20 Japanese-style ryokan inns had reopened as at early December after

all of them closed

following the 7.6 magnitude quake, according to the local tourism association.

“Our challenges are renovating the buildings of Wakura, which are considered the life of the area, and retaining employees,” said Mr Kazuhiro Okuda, chairman of the association.

Affected by soaring construction costs and a shortage of construction workers, the number of rooms to be available will likely fall from around 1,300 before the quake to below 1,000 even if all the inns reopen in 2028 as expected.

To retain employees, some inns have utilised a system that keeps them on the payroll while sending them to work at other accommodation facilities or manufacturing jobs, with the Kagaya group, which runs ryokan inns in the area, having 80 such staff now at other workplaces.

Biwanso, a hot spring inn with a history of over 220 years, reopened its doors to guests in November, although the number of rooms have been reduced from 68 to 11 as it continues reconstruction work.

“We can’t ask our employees to wait forever. We’ll start with what we can do,” said Ms Naomi Tada, president of the inn.

In the hard-hit Okunoto area, on the northernmost tip of the peninsula, all 11 local breweries were damaged by the disaster, and only three have restarted operations, according to the prefectural sake makers’ association.

Many of the others have resorted to joint brewing by renting facilities in the south of the prefecture as they struggle with surging prices of rice used to make their products.

Used to relying on locals to assist with bottling sake during peak season, they are also dealing with the fallout from a population outflow. KYODO NEWS