Japanese town Noto spends COVID relief money on giant squid statue

A coastal town in Japan that received millions in COVID-19 relief money has spent a huge chunk of it on this statue of a giant pink squid.

A coastal town in Japan has dropped a reported 25 million yen – about $296,000 – on a massive sculpture of a pink squid, using money designated for coronavirus pandemic relief, in a bold bid to boost tourism.

Construction began in October on the giant squid, which is 13m-long, 9m-wide and 4m-high, and has been installed in a prominent position close to the waterfront in Noto, in the Ishikawa prefecture on Japan’s central-western coast.

The squid statue in all its glory. Picture: The Tonarinopoti

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Officials in Noto claim that their investment in the structure will help drum up tourism in the cash-strapped fishing town, where squid is a local delicacy.

Although Japan is currently battling another spike of COVID-19, declaring a state of emergency just last month, Noto says its case rate has been low throughout the pandemic. Regardless, their tourism industry has taken a big hit.

The peninsula city received a total of 800 million yen ($A9.5 million) in emergency economic relief funds though government grants – money which could be used for anything, not just coronavirus-related efforts.

The statue cost $296,000, with money taken from pandemic relief funding. Picture: The Tonarinopoti

Nevertheless, some are criticising Noto’s administration for spending so much on the bizarre monument – especially as COVID-19 continues to ravage communities throughout Japan and around the world.

So far there have been nearly 530,000 COVID-19 cases in the country, resulting in the deaths of more than 10,293 people, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, out of a total population of 126.3 million.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission