New Zealand companies operating in Japan say COVID-19 has been a massive blow to their offshore businesses.
Like many countries across the world, Japan's economy has been battered by the pandemic. Its economy shrank by 5 percent last year and unemployment rose for the first time in 11 years.
At Harajuku's Cookie Bar, business was booming. But since Newshub last visited the store during the 2019 Rugby World Cup, times have been tough.
"We shut the store quite early on," says Jason Allen of Cookie Time Japan.
"We stayed closed for a couple of months. We rebooted really early on, we rebooted really slowly and had to release some part-time and some contract staff."
COVID-19 forced the business online for a few months.
It has been a boost, but without tourism, every retail dollar has been hard to earn.
"It's still heavily underperforming, but we've got it to a level where it's not detrimental to other parts of our business," Allen says.
Fonterra Japan president Yasuhiro Saito says COVID-19 has made it harder for the New Zealand cooperative to grow there.
"It has been and it is still very challenging here for everyone, including our customers," he says.
"Of course, Japanese authorities put restrictions so they restrict some of the daily imports… so that is restricting our volume to some extent."
Fonterra still performs well though, and Japan remains New Zealand's fourth-largest dairy export market.
That success can't be said for struggling local businesses who expected a big boost from the Olympics - instead, they're getting squeezed even tighter.
The current state of emergency aims to stop COVID from being spread through the Games, with further limits on trading.
One local says: "If the government is going to restrict our business, then I say cancel the Olympics."
It's a sentiment shared by many here in Japan but it's far too late for that.
Those hoping the Olympics would put them on a fast road to recovery are now finding it's instead become another hurdle.
