The COVID-19 outbreak is weighing down the transportation and tourism sectors as infection fears make people reluctant to venture outdoors or share confined spaces with others for long hours.
Passengers using the Tokaido bullet train line linking Tokyo and Osaka fell 8 percent between Feb. 1 and 19 compared with a year earlier, Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Central) said, adding that ridership on other express trains plunged 15 percent.
The pace of the drop was near the same as in May 2011, when the economy took a downturn in the aftermath of the March 11 triple disaster in Tohoku.