In Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, restaurants normally thronged with tourists hoping to sample some of its renowned sushi stand empty, victim of the coronavirus that is battering Japan’s tourism sector.

Cook Hiroshi Ota, 61, said nearly three-quarters of his customers in normal times are Chinese tourists, but they are kept away by new Japanese measures requesting everyone from China and South Korea self-quarantine for two weeks.

“It was normal until around December but after that, people stopped coming from China during the Lunar New Year. The streets and shops here are nearly empty,” he told AFP.