The show must go on. Japan will host the Olympics in just over two months, despite a fourth COVID wave hitting its major cities.
Despite the Japanese government expanding a coronavirus state of emergency to include three more cities, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is committed to opening the Olympics on July 23, 2021.
The three additional cities announced on Friday are Hokkaido, where the Olympic marathon is set to be held, Hiroshima and Okayama. This decision marked the second expansion of the state of emergency in one week.
Japan has struggled to slow the rate of infection in populated areas. In Osaka, Japan’s third most-populated city, hospitals are overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.
Reports estimate that over 17,000 people with coronavirus symptoms are being treated at home, given the dire shortage of hospital beds. The country in its entirety has the third-highest rate of coronavirus cases in Asia, currently reaching a daily average of over 6,000 cases.
Notwithstanding his decision to proceed with the games, Suga affirmed on Monday, May 8, that he “never put the Olympics first” and that his priority “has been to protect the lives and health of the Japanese population“.
Suga intends to protect Japan from the threat of overseas acquired virus by implementing strict regulations for the Olympic Games.
Rules include mandatory daily testing for athletes, limits on athletes’ movement, excluding foreign spectators, and potentially expelling journalists covering the Games should they breach the strict coronavirus measures.
Suga’s government has met serious public pressure to cancel or postpone the Games. Only hours before the announcement expanding the state of emergency on Friday, a public petition for cancelling the Tokyo Olympics was submitted with over 350,000 signatures.
Further, the most recent poll conducted in Japan showed that 59.7 per cent of the public believe that the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics should be cancelled. 87.7 per cent fear that an influx of Olympic participants may contribute to the virus spreading further.
Kyodo News poll on holding the Olympics this summer:
59.7% – Should be cancelled
25.2% – Should be held without spectators
12.6% – Should be held with limited spectatorsThat’s 59.7% vs. 37.8% in favor of cancellation. (MP)
— SNA Japan (@ShingetsuNews) May 16, 2021
Pressure from the public is being exacerbated by frustrations with the country’s low vaccination rate. It is estimated less than 2 per cent of Japan’s population of 126 million is vaccinated—one of the lowest vaccination rates worldwide.
In Osaka and Tokyo, mutated strains of the coronavirus, including the UK variant, are increasingly on the rise and are predicted to overtake the original virus. The UK strain poses a serious threat, as it is said to be 1.9 times more contagious than the original virus.
In the nine areas where a state of emergency has been declared, department stores are directed to close temporarily or shut early, whereas restaurants must shut by 8 pm. The restrictions are effective until the end of May.
Meanwhile, in Japan, a poll conducted by Kyoto News reflects that more than 70% of the Japanese respondents are not satisfied with Prime Minister Suga’s way of handling the #COVID19 outbreak and close to 60% of them think the Olympics should be canceled. https://t.co/9kaOACogNH
— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) May 16, 2021
