Games to be held without fans in Tokyo, three prefectures
The Tokyo Olympics will be held without spectators in the Japanese capital and three neighbouring prefectures, due to surging coronavirus infections in the metropolitan area, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday, as the organisers of the games began a meeting to discuss whether local fans will be allowed into venues.
The three prefectures are Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, according to the source. The meeting of the five organisers, including the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee, was convened after the Japanese government decided to put Tokyo under another state of emergency until Aug 22.
With the decision, the likelihood increased that there would be no spectators in the stands at venues in and around Tokyo when the games start in just two weeks’ time.
IOC president Thomas Bach, who arrived in Tokyo yesterday, met remotely with representatives of the Japanese bodies, including Seiko Hashimoto, who heads the organising committee, and Tokyo Governor
Yuriko Koike.
At the outset of the meeting, which was open to the press, Hashimoto said a “very difficult decision” needs to be made regarding spectators.
Bach said he and IPC chief Andrew Parsons continue to be “committed” to delivering the games safely with the Japanese organisers.
“We have shown this responsibility since the day of the postponement,”
Bach said. “And we will also show it today, and we will support any measure which is necessary to have a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic Games for the Japanese people and all the participants.”
Having already barred spectators from overseas in March, the organisers decided late last month to allow up to 10,000 local fans per venue during the Olympics on the assumption that the coronavirus situation in the capital improved.
However, Tokyo on Wednesday reported 920 new infections, registering the highest daily count since mid-May, while medical experts continue to warn of the dangers of going ahead with the games when many countries are grappling with the rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant first detected in India.
Yesterday, Tokyo reported 896 new cases of the virus, exceeding the number logged a week earlier for the 19th straight day.
According to the Japanese organising committee, Bach will quarantine at his hotel for three days. He is set to visit the athletes’ village in Tokyo’s Harumi waterfront district and hold meetings with the organising body, both in person and remotely.
The IOC is also arranging for Bach to visit Hiroshima, which was devastated by a US-dropped atomic bomb in World War II, on July 16, the starting day of an Olympic truce adopted by the United Nations.
IOC Vice President John Coates, who arrived in Tokyo earlier, is planning on the same day to visit Nagasaki, the other Japanese city hit by an atomic bomb in 1945.
Coates drew criticism in Japan in May for saying the Olympics can be held even if Tokyo is under a state of emergency.