Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stressed Thursday that if the government were to focus fully on controlling the spread of Covid-19 after a senior government official said canceling the Tokyo Olympics was certainly an option, if the coronavirus pandemic situation worsens.
Yoshihide Suga did not respond directly to the senior official’s comments, but claimed that the government’s stance had not changed in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8.
“There is no change in the government’s attitude to doing everything possible to prevent the spread of infections on the way to the Olympics,” Suga said, as quoted by Reuters.
Toshihiro Nikai, general secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party, said earlier in the day the Japanese government would stop preparing for the Games if the situation in Covid-19 made it impossible to host the four-year event due to last year’s pandemic.
“If it seems impossible (to host the Olympics) we have to stop it decisively,” Toshihiro Nikai said in a comment to TBS.
“Canceling is an opinion, of course. If the Olympics spread an infection, what are the Olympics for?” he added.
However, the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee responded with a statement that everyone involved in preparing for the Games continued to focus fully on hosting them over the summer.
With Japan amid a fourth wave of coronavirus infections, doubts have surfaced in recent weeks as to whether Tokyo would be able to host the Summer Games – an idea already unpopular with the public.
But government and organizing officials have consistently said the Games would take place, and the fact that a ruling party heavyweight made the remark was enough to call his comments on the domestic news the best result. “Olympics Canceled” hit Twitter in Japan with nearly 50,000 tweets from users on Thursday afternoon.
Nikai later issued a written statement explaining his stance.
“I want the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games to be successful,” the statement said. “At the same time, the question of whether we would host the (games) no matter what happens is not the case. That’s what I meant by my comments.”
The Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee reaffirms its commitment
When asked about Nikai’s comments, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee said in a statement: “Prime Minister Suga has repeatedly expressed the government’s commitment to hosting the Tokyo 2020 Games.
“All of our delivery partners, including the National Government, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, IOC (International Olympic Committee) and IPC (International Paralympic Committee), are fully focused on hosting the Games this summer . “
Japan is grappling with rising COVID-19 infections, with the number of new cases in Tokyo rising to 729 on Thursday, the most since early February. Tokyo, Osaka and several other prefectures fell into a state of emergency this month and urged bars and restaurants to shorten their opening times.
Still, the government is pressing ahead with preparations for social distancing and other restrictions on the postponed games, which are slated to begin on July 23 and will take place without international viewers. A downsized burner relay is already underway.
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