TOKYO – Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike cancelled all public viewing sites for the 2020 Olympic Games, diverting some venues to be Covid-19 vaccinations centres instead.
Foreign spectators are banned from attended the Games, delayed by a year due to the pandemic, but the government and Tokyo 2020 organisers have for months held off on deciding whether to allow Japanese spectators into the stadiums.
The ban on public viewing follows the metropolitan government’s decision this month to scrap plans for a public viewing site in Yoyogi Park in central Tokyo, converting the venue to a vaccination centre.
“I believe these are necessary measures, when looking from various perspectives, for a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Koike said according to Reuters after meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
They are to talk on Monday with the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee.
Japanese medical experts said on Friday that banning spectators at the Olympics was the least risky option for going ahead with the event, while floating the possibility that venues could hold up to 10,000 fans in areas where “quasi-emergency” measures, such as shorter restaurant hours, have been lifted.
Japanese medical experts, meanwhile, said that banning spectators at the Olympics was the least risky option for holding the Games, even as they appeared resigned to the possibility of fans in venues during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government and Tokyo 2020 organisers have for months held off deciding whether domestic spectators will be allowed – overseas fans are already banned – underscoring their desire to salvage the event amid deep public opposition.
Japan has avoided the kind of explosive coronavirus outbreaks that crippled many other countries. But the vaccine roll-out has been slow and the medical system pushed to the brink in parts of the country. The government’s drive to hold the Games has been criticised by hospitals and doctors’ unions.
“There is a risk the movement of people and opportunities to interact during the Olympics will spread infections and strain the medical system,” the experts, led by top health adviser Shigeru Omi, said in a report according to Reuters.
They said that holding the Games without spectators was the “least risky” option and the desirable one.
Yet Omi’s experts have already floated the possibility that venues could hold up to 10,000 fans in areas where “quasi-emergency” measures, such as shorter restaurant hours, have been lifted. That has heightened the perception the Games may well be held with spectators.
The final decision is expected at a meeting set for Monday between organisers, including Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee, and representatives from the national and Tokyo governments.
The president of Tokyo 2020, Seiko Hashimoto, said that while she accepted the Olympics would be safer without spectators, organisers were still looking for ways to have fans safely in venues, like other events.
“Given that other sports events are being held with spectators, I think it’s also Tokyo 2020’s job to continue to look for ways to understand and lessen the risk of infections at the Olympics until we’ve exhausted all the possibilities,” she told a news conference following the release of Omi’s report.
