Tokyo's famous sushi scene has been crippled by the coronavirus outbreak

Shortly after dawn, Hideki Sugiura moves swiftly through the narrow aisles of Tokyo's Toyosu Market.

It's much quieter than usual, and the sushi chef doesn't need to buy as much fish for his small restaurant, Sushi Marubatsu.

Business is down around 50%, Sugiura says, due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has spread through large parts of Asia and is now gripping Europe and the US, with more than 300,000 cases globally. Japan currently has more than 1,000 confirmed cases, several dozen of whom have died.

Nearly every day for the past nine years, Sugiura has been carrying out his daily ritual at Toyosu -- the wholesale section of the famous Tsukiji fish market, which moved to new premises in 2018.

His tiny restaurant, which fits about a dozen diners, is in Shibuya, near Tokyo's famous intersection with a four-way pedestrian crossing. But the majority of his business comes from local Japanese.

 

"Company workers who used to come in for lunch don't come at all now," he says. "And housewives used to come in at lunchtime, but none of them come now."

Business already down: Sugiura says that business was already hurting before the virus spread, due to an ailing economy that slowed after the Japanese government increased the consumption tax in October.

"We've had a de facto shutdown of all the major engines of demand," says Jesper Koll, a Tokyo-based economist. "That's consumption, business spending, export of goods and inbound tourism."

Many businesses had been holding out for the expected economic boost of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, due to be held in July and August this year. But now, the future of the event -- and the associated benefits for Tokyo's retail and tourism industry -- looks uncertain due to the pandemic.