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When Tsurigasaki Beach in Ichinomiya, Chiba prefecture was selected as the surfing venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games, residents of the small town of just over 12,000 people were ecstatic.
Surfing plays a major role in the town's economy, with over 60,000 surfers visiting each year to catch the best waves in Japan. Ichinomiya’s “surfonomics” or surf economy from the Olympics was estimated to be around 10 billion yen or over $124 million (AUD).
But things are looking a lot different now.
The ongoing states of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic and postponement of the games was already a huge blow, with the town’s hospitality industry relying on crowdfunding last year to keep it afloat.