A town in Japan has garnered attention on social media after they used COVID relief funds to build a huge statue of a giant squid in an effort to boost tourism.
According to Reuters, the town of Noto in Ishikawa Prefecture was given $7.31 million (800 million yen) as part of Japanese government’s relief funds to help boost local economies caused by the coronavirus.
Noto allegedly used 30 million yen to design and build the giant squid statue. The statue stands four meters tall, and is nine meters long.
Why’d they go with a squid statue? Well, the squid is a local delicacy, and the statue is a part of a long-term strategy to bring more attention to Noto’s fishing industry, which could hopefully increase tourism.
The local government started building the statue in October, and wrapped things up in March.