The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) in Vietnam has affirmed that sports and music events in Japan will proceed as planned, with no announcements regarding travel restrictions or event suspensions after a recent massive earthquake.

The statement was made after Monday's magnitude-7.6 earthquake, which has killed more than 80 people in the Hokuriku region, destroyed infrastructure, and left homes without power, struck days after regulators lifted an operational ban on Tokyo Electric's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, as reported by Reuters.

Yoshida Kenji, chief representative of JNTO Vietnam, said on Thursday that it was a pity that the natural disaster rocked Japan at the start of 2024 and sparked travel concerns.

Kenji said that some outdoor events and mass gatherings have been suspended in quake-hit areas, but other localities across the country are continuing to hold sports and music events as scheduled.

To ensure the safety of residents and tourists, the Japan Meteorological Agency is keeping a close watch on other potential tremors.

JNTO Vietnam said that it will continue gathering information from Japan via various sources to provide tourists with timely and correct information.

With regard to a crash between a passenger jet and a Coast Guard turboprop at a Tokyo airport on Tuesday that left five dead, JNTO Vietnam said that the Japanese traffic safety bureau and police are investigating the cause of the collision.

As reported by Vietnamese travel firms, multiple groups of Vietnamese visitors are currently on tours to various destinations in Japan, and they are confirmed to be safe.

A representative of Vietravel said that when the powerful earthquake struck Japan, the firm’s 500 tourists were touring multiple cities in the country.

The groups of travelers mainly visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Mount Fuji, Matsuyama, and Nagoya, all located in southeastern Japan, while the earthquake hit the country's western coast.

The tour operator affirmed that Vietnamese tourists on its tours are still safe and their itineraries were not changed in the wake of the natural disaster.

Some groups of visitors to Japan have finished their journeys to return to Vietnam, said the representative. 

“We have teamed up with Japanese partners to promptly respond to the unexpected circumstances, and roll out safety measures to ease the fears of tourists,” the Vietravel representative underlined.

“The travel firm is willing to support tourists who bought tours and hope to change their travel time, or alter their destinations to Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia."

Other Vietnamese travel firms which arrange tours to Japan such as Saigontourist, Benthanh Tourist, and Vietluxtour said that they have yet to receive requests for tour cancellation and suspension from their customers.

Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing director at Saigontourist, said that the company continues to offer tours to Japan both before and during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday in February. Sales for these tours are on the rise.

JNTO Vietnam has announced that the number of Vietnamese tourist arrivals in Japan between January and November last year surpassed the peak of 2019.

Meanwhile, Vietnam welcomed 536,800 Japanese travelers during the same period, exceeding the record number of 495,050 in 2019.

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