Zimpapers Logo

A visit to Tokyo this month by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has been postponed due to the extension of a Covid-19 state of emergency in Japan.

Bach was due to visit on May 17 and 18. The Games organising committee yesterday (Monday) confirmed the cancellation and said the trip would be rearranged “as soon as possible”. There were unconfirmed reports in Japanese media that the trip will be in June.

A state of emergency involving tighter Covid-19 restrictions was introduced in several prefectures in Japan including Tokyo on April 25, due to rising cases and the Golden Week holiday period in which Japanese citizens often travel. The state of emergency was to run for two weeks until May 11. On Friday it was extended until May 31 due to a stubbornly high Covid-19 case count.

The Tokyo Olympics continue to divide opinion in Japan. An poll conducted on May 7-9 by newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun suggested that 59 percent of the Japanese public want the Games to be cancelled, with 39 per cent wanting them to go ahead. Another poll by a Japanese media outlet, TBS News, showed that 65 per cent of the public want the Games cancelled or postponed. A petition calling for a cancellation has attracted more than 300 000 signatures.

Responding to parliamentary committee questions on his approach to the Olympics, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Monday: “I’ve never put Olympics first…My priority has been to protect the lives and health of the Japanese population. We must first prevent the spread of the virus.”

The leader of Japan’s main opposition party said on Monday that it was “impossible to protect the lives, health and livelihoods of the Japanese people while holding the Olympics and Paralympics.”

The Games’ organisers have repeatedly assured that they can run the event safely. Test events have been taking place in recent weeks with no reported Covid-19 cases emerging. At the weekend, a track-and-field athletics test event involving hundreds of international athletes, took place at Tokyo’s National Stadium. – Sport Business