Tokyo, Japan
Reuters
Half of the Japanese public thinks the Olympics will take place this summer, a survey by Yomiuri daily newspaper showed on Monday, less than two months before the Games’ scheduled opening.
For the Tokyo Olympics, already postponed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, questions still remain over how Tokyo can hold the global event and keep volunteers, athletes, officials and the Japanese public safe from COVID-19.
Visitors try to take photos in front of the Olympic Rings monument outside the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) headquarters near the National Stadium, the main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games that have been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, on 30th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Issei Kato.
But Japan has been “cornered” into pressing ahead with the Games despite public opposition during the pandemic, one of Japan’s sporting heroes and a member of the local Olympic committee said on Friday.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government would continue to work on coronavirus measures for the “safe and secure” Games.
“It is important to create circumstances where the Japanese public feel safe heading towards the Tokyo Games,” Kato said, reiterating that organisers would make a decision this month on domestic spectators.
In a Yomiuri survey conducted on 4th to 6th June, 50 per cent of respondents said the Games would happen this summer; 26 per cent said they would occur without spectators. That is higher than 48 per cent of those polled saying the event would be cancelled.
But the same poll found public support for the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was at the lowest level of his administration, at 37 per cent.
Most of the respondents said that despite fatigue from virus-related restrictions, virus measures for Olympics athletes and participants are not enough.
– With reporting by MAKIKO YAMAZAKI and CHANG-RAN KIM.
