Since Kansai International Airport opened in 1994, business and political leaders in Osaka have touted the region as the gateway to Asia. Often showing little interest in other parts of the world, they would tell each other in conference rooms, cocktail parties, symposiums and seminars that China and East Asia were the future of Kansai's international relations.
The strategy worked. Kansai Airport developed an extensive network of connections with the rest of East Asia. More recently, low-cost carriers from China and Hong Kong arrived, helping fuel the inbound Chinese tourism boom.
But with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan, China, the benefits of the unofficial "Asia First" strategy have suddenly revealed an inherent weakness; namely, putting your economic eggs into one basket. In Kansai's case, the basket is China and East Asia.
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