Several years ago, in 2016, the Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto suffered from the devastating impact of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. The disaster did serious damage to the towns and cities within the prefecture, and killed 50 people. After the earthquake had passed, the prefecture was left with a lot of rebuilding to do, and the heavy question of where they would get the resources to do so.
The solution was found, at least in part, with one of Japan’s most famous cultural exports: anime. Creator of the mega-popular manga/anime series One Piece and native of Kumamoto city donated 800 million yen to the recovery efforts, which adds up to about $7.5 million in American dollars. 500 million of that yen was donated in the name of Luffy, the protagonist of One Piece, and as a result, the prefecture thanked creator Eiichiro Oda by erecting eight statues of One Piece characters in various locations.
This may seem like a strange priority for recovery spending, but it has paid off in ways that the prefecture couldn’t have imagined. Tourism spending saw a major increase after the installation of the Luffy statue, with estimates suggesting that the economic value of the statue is over 2 and half billion yen, or $25 million U.S. dollars. The money was calculated by surveying visitors and estimating the spending of those who claimed to be visiting just to see the statue, which ended up being about 55 thousand tourists from all over Japan and beyond.
For those interested in the math, this result means that the Luffy statue has been a massive success, paying for itself over 267 times each year, and bringing in a huge amount of money that is circulating through the economy of the Kumamoto. These numbers were found by a group of students from the local Shokei university, who surveyed visitors to the statue between the months of October and January. While one student reported being “surprised” by the sheer amount of money brought in, another student remarked that they “expected” this. They were also hopeful for even better results in the future: “I think if the statues of the remaining comrades are also erected, the number would be even greater.”
Source: Crunchyroll
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