Ghibli Museum in Tokyo Announces COVID-19 Measures for Reopening

It has been almost six months since the temporary closure of the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo in late February to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Throughout this time, museum staff have been sharing videos about the interior of the site to keep visitors interested, and on July 26 the museum received its first guests for just one day, who were chosen to through a drawing limited to local residents of the City of Mitaka.

That one-day opening helped staff identify new requirements to keep visitors safe ahead of the new tentative reopening, now scheduled for September. While the museum plans to limit the maximum number of daily visitors to less than those seen in the days before the pandemic, the enclosed spaces will still need to be refurbished in light of the still-ongoing pandemic, and new videos of the museum show the new level of care that is being taken to ensure everyone's safety prior to reopening.

The following video shows how the “cleaning crew” will constantly spray surfaces inside and outside the building with alcohol.

On the other hand, the following video reveals that keeping the “Cat-Bus” clean is representing a great challenge, especially when children want to climb on it from all sides. However, the staff keeps everyone safe by: limiting the number of children in the area to just six at a time, limiting playtime to just five minutes, and spraying all surfaces with alcohol between each group.

Finally, the following video takes the viewer inside the “Saturn Theater”, an in-house cinema that shows exclusive shorts from Ghibli studios and generally has a capacity of 80 people. Now, visitors will be required to maintain a distance from each other within the facility as part of social distancing, and staff are working on art forms to keep people a seat apart.

The official website for these facilities summarizes the countermeasures implemented at the Ghibli Museum, which are:

The building will be cleaned and sterilized periodically.
The building will be fully ventilated.
Staff will have their temperatures taken at the start of their shift, will wear masks during their shift, and will make sure to keep their hands clean and sterilized.
Acrylic panels will be installed in the reception, cash registers and restaurants. The trays will be used to give and receive money (when making a purchase).