Worries loom over deserted hot spring resort as Japan ends negative interest rate policy

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The Bank of Japan has raised its interest rate for the first time in 17 years, ending its negative interest rate policy. But struggling business owners like Masanori Numao, whose family-owned hot spring resort Kinugawa Onsen goes back more than 300 years, are voicing concerns as even a small rate hike would impose a major financial burden to invest in restoration projects. Businesses like Numao’s have almost ceased to exist in the decades since Japan’s economy burst in the 1980s and during the Covid-19 pandemic.