The organizers of the AnimeJapan convention have announced the event has been cancelled, due to the coronavirus.
The announcement for English speaking countries came via Twitter. The statement reads as follows:
“In the face of the recent novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the call from the Japanese government to cancel large-scale events made on February 26th, but most of all thinking about the saftey of our visitors and everyone involved in the event we have decided to cancel AnimeJapan 2020 and Family Anime Festa 2020.
We are extremely sorry towards all the anime fans looking forward to this year’s edition and all involved parties who were preparing for the event, however the conclusion has been made to prevent the further spread of the infection. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.”
A later tweet also announced that all admission tickets would be refunded. The refund period will begin on March 6th, when more details will become available on the official website.
AnimeJapan originated as a merger of the Tokyo International Anime Fair, and Anime Contents Expo in 2014. Since then, the convention has had over 100,000 attendees year on year. The conventions Executive Committee is made up of 19 companies, including Aniplex, Kadokawa Corporation, Pierrot, Production I.G, and Toei Animation.
Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, are mapping the spread of the coronavirus [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 88,000 confirmed cases worldwide, and nearly 3000 deaths. Over 42,700 people have had a “total recovery.”
In Japan (excluding the 705 cases on the docked Diamond Princess cruise ship), there have been 256 cases, six deaths, and 32 people making a total recovery. On February 27th, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered all schools across Japan to close through to the student spring break.
The coronavirus has affected many businesses in China, including Google, Apple, Facebook, and more. It has also hindered businesses in Japan, including those centered around anime and video games [1, 2, 3, 4].
Image: AnimeJapan Official Website
