Too much money at stake to cancel

WHEN the Olympics were awarded to Tokyo in 2013, I was pretty happy, and when I won a lottery for tickets to see karate at the famous Budokan, I felt lucky and thrilled and my friends were envious. Karate is making its Games debut and demand for seats was huge.

The Budokan was built to stage the judo at the 1964 Olympics and is the spiritual home of martial arts. In 1966 The Beatles became the first band to play there. And while I’ve only ever been there for gigs — David Bowie, Noel Gallagher — I was looking forward to being part of a special moment.

When the Games were postponed, I was told I could keep my ticket or be reimbursed. I kept my ticket, and in an ideal world I’d like it to go ahead and be there.

Opinion polls here say a majority are against the Olympics happening and when you go on the internet, there’s a lot of noise, albeit led by a few loud, influential critics.

If there’s a deadly disease that will kill lots of people if you stage a sports event, you choose what saves lives. But we remain in limbo, with no certainty how safe it will be by the last week of July when the Games are due to start. I’d like them to go ahead if it’s safe then. It’s a real shame foreign visitors can’t come. The international party element in a host city is key to the meaning of an Olympics.

That Tokyo was under a ‘state of emergency’ until last week is paradoxical. Aside from advice not to go outside after 8pm, life seems pretty normal. I’m going to work, on my bike. I went to the movies last week. I recently went through [ the famous shopping district] Ginza and so many people were out. Restaurants are open for lunch.

But Covid has been rising again. A couple of weeks ago there were 200 cases a day in Tokyo but it went up to 300 the next week and was 394 on Thursday. The Japanese government would never unilaterally say the Games shouldn’t go ahead. And the IOC were never going to cancel for one obvious reason: money.

The Games already have one legacy. That is the significant step forward in our society when Yoshiro Mori, head of the organising committee, resigned after his remarks about women talking too much.

If Mori had made t he same remarks in a job where his views were only relevant to people inside Japan, he would never have gone. The world’s eyes being on Japan made his sexism actionable. And that’s a good thing. Eriko Hagio is a cultural events organiser in the diplomatic sector.