In reference to my peer William Huang’s blog, many people think the impact of Pokémon Go is gradually faded. However, recently, the tourism in Tohoku quake zones in Japan is aided by a rare Pokémon, Lapras. According to The Japan Times, Niantic Inc. is now holding an event which they spawn a rare Pokémon in Pokémon Go in the coastline areas which was affected by the tsunami in March 2011. Niantic believes that it could help to attract more tourists to the Tohoku regions after the Fukushima incident has happened. It is estimated that the presence of Lapras can help growing the local economy since it is really difficult for players to obtain Lapras. Furthermore, Pokémon go players who live outside Japan may like to travel to Japan for the event. 
However, the event is controversial. Niantic announced that the event will last until 23 Nov 2016. Many players said on tweeter that it only benefits the students who have more free time or players who are really into Pokémon Go. For a lot of players in Japan, they do not have much time to participate in this event. As far as I am concerned, I think it is only a short term solution to boost the tourism in Tohoku regions. After the event finishes, the number of tourists would still decrease. Another point of view from the public is that some people think Niantic shouldn’t only be doing this for Tohoku regions. Their point is that Niantic should hold similar event for other areas which was also seriously affected by natural disasters.
Why is Niantic doing this? According to Forbes, in addition to being a “for a good cause” event, Niantic is also testing the idea of very targeted spawns and if people would like it. Niantic has been doing spawns in four different global regions yet this very specific spawns of Pokémon in a very specific region is something new. According to Pokémon Go blog’s post, from the original commercial of Pokémon Go, we can tell the future strategy of Niantic would be identical. It showed groups of people gathering in Times Square attempting to catch a rare Pokémon, Mewtwo. Therefore, the event in Tohoku areas might just be a start. It is not difficult to imagine that Niantic would use the identical way of increasing the spawning rate of a rare Pokémon in a specific region. Still, it would only work if the place of Pokémon Go stays at the top in the players’ minds. In order to do so, Niantic should look for some alternative strategies to steady its position in the market.
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