Superpolemic in Japan: Covid aid spent on giant squid statue

In Japan, a coastal town in Ishikawa Prefecture (curiously enough named Noto) has received 800 million yen (equivalent to just over 6 million euros) from the government as part of a funding program aimed at reviving the local economy hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, a storm broke out on social media over how these funds were spent, as part of the financial aid, amounting to 25 million yen (about 190 thousand euros) was used by the city to... make a statue of a giant squid. And according to national media reports, the total cost for the construction of the particular statue amounts to about 30 million yen (about 227 thousand euros). And the news has gone around the world, also reported by major media outlets such as CNN and the BBC.

The giant sculpture is nearly four meters tall, has a length of 12 twelve meters and a width of nearly nine meters. According to national media, it was chosen to use much of the aid to build a squid on the coast in an attempt to attract tourists and thus jumpstart the city’s economy, especially in the year of the Tokyo Olympics. In addition, the animal represents the culinary specialty of Japanese Noto: in fact, the city was famous as a center of squid fishing. But for many Japanese people little mattered to the administration’s wishes: the statue, in addition to being a candidate to become one of the worst public sculptures in Japan, is in the view of many nothing more than a waste of money.

Superpolemic in Japan: Covid aid spent on giant squid statue

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