Japan's Mainichi is reporting that a One Piece statue erected in Eiichiro Oda's honor is paying unexpected dividends to the local economy.
Following the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake ,Oda made a series of sizable donations (totaling $7.1 million USD) to aid in the recovery of his hometown. He also provided illustrations to be used on the side of local railway cars. In response, the local government decided to erect statues of the Staw Hat pirate crew around the Kumamoto Prefecture. The first statue was for the Straw Hat's leader Luffy and was erected back in November 2018. The statues will cost a total of ¥13 million yen (approx. $121,567)to install.
Well, it seems Oda is the gift that keeps on giving as students at Shokei University's Faculty of Contemporary Culture conducted a research study from October 2019 to January 2020 that revealed that tourist that have traveled to see the statue have resulted in a ¥2.67 billion yen (~$24 million) boon to the local economy. It's estimated that the statue receives roughly 55,211 visitors per year.
Statues of Sanji and Usopp have already been unveiled in the towns of Mashiki and the city of Aso. Six more statues are planned to be erected at later dates, throughout the Kumamoto Prefecture, which is located on the island of Kyūshū. Oda was born in 1975 in the city of Kumamto, which is the capital and largest city of Kumamoto Prefecture.