A coastal town in Noto, Japan, recently got $228,000 to use for Covid relief funding and they built a giant squid statue. Why you may ask? I don’t know either.

In Japan, the Covid cases aren’t slowing down and the state of emergency was declared last month. Noto officials shared that the squid will bring more tourists to the rural town after the pandemic is over, keyword: over. There are new records of Covid cases in Japan being reached every day and this is what they do with the money? The cost of the project actually costed more than the amount given which means that the town had to use some of their own money as well.

I don’t want to sound like a parent here but think about all the other countries hitting rock-bottom in this uncertain time. Places that thought they handle Covid well are suffering and who knows if the next spike of Covid cases will happen in Noto? (although I hope it doesn’t)

The officials also mentioned that while the project wasn’t related to Covid, the town wanted to look ahead and spend the money on tourist attractions. After looking at some pictures of Noto, it looks like a beautiful place itself so if the money went towards environment preservation then that would’ve been quite enough! It’s still not what the money was meant for which brings me to my next point.

If you were told to buy milk and only had enough money to buy the milk, a normal person wouldn’t go off to buy candy or something other than the milk no matter how tempting it is. If Noto received the money to help with issues around Covid they should’ve used it on that or save it up for a time when they need it. They could’ve just stashed the Squid idea for later and see to keep their citizens safe from Covid.

There are many people patting the officials on the back for thinking about the future which I have to give them credit for. Right now many countries aren’t getting that tourism money that they ran on. As Covid is still a global issue, I don’t think money should be handled so loosely. One government’s $228,000 can be another one’s treasure. As I have said multiple times already, I don’t find it a reasonable purchase from all of the articles and opinions I’ve read on it.

If it was done at a time when Covid wasn’t such a ginormous issue as it is right now, this would’ve been really fun news. The town of Noto is known for squid and having a statue to represent that would’ve been cool. But the use of money that many places aren’t getting and making such a huge purchase at a time like this isn’t it.

If you want to get real information on the squid statue rather than my rant I’d suggest checking out this article, link here.