Japan, the city of Noto spent the money on recovery from Covid for the statue of a giant squid
The Japanese city of Known (not to be confused with the homonymous Sicilian city) has thought of spending money on the Recovery Japanese to build a huge giant squid statue. A decision that raised several controversies.
The choice to allocate the grants received from the central government to respond to the crisis in the Covid-19 (800 million yen; about 6 million euros) the construction of the statue was justified by the city administrators as a strategy to revive the tourism.
The sea creature is, in fact, a delicacy of the place, and the construction of the monument was part of a “long-term strategy” to raise awareness of the fishing industry of Noto and increase the number of visitors, a local government official said, responding to the wave of criticism that swept Noto after the inauguration of the squid sculpture.
The 13-meter-long sea creature is located in the port of the city. According to reports from the BBC, 25 million yen (dollars 228,500) from Covid emergency funding was used to build the statue.
According to one resident, as reported by Reuters, “although the statue can be an effective long-term tourism strategy, the money could have been used as ” urgent support” for the city’s medical staff“.
Japan is fighting another wave of Coronavirus cases and Tokyo is currently in a state of emergency. The fishing town of Noto-which is located in Ishikawa Prefecture, on Japan’s West – Central Coast-has recorded a number of very low cases but was affected by a significant drop in tourists.