Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2021 July 7 - 13 [POLITICS]

Olympic Games in Tokyo areas will be held without spectators including schoolchildren

The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee on July 8 announced that the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa will be held "without spectators" and that the planned mobilization of schoolchildren to attend the games in these prefectures was cancelled.

This is the result of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election in which the Japanese Communist Party calling for the "cancellation" and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan calling for the "cancellation or postponement" of the Olympics increased their number of assembly seats, as Asahi Shimbun dated July 9 reported, "Public opinion cautious about the Olympics appeared visibly," in the election results.

Meanwhile, Olympic venues in Hokkaido, Miyagi, Fukushima, and Shizuoka, as of now, will accept "up to 10,000 spectators or 50% of venue capacity". Therefore, a large number of staff members such as for the transport of athletes and for guarding are still necessary. For now, a total of 81,000 bus drivers and crew are planned to be mobilized from throughout Japan. As the daily Akahata exclusively reported, many medical service providers, including nurses and doctors, will be assigned to each venue. The Organizing Committee explained that the number of these staff will be reduced because of the "without spectators" policy, but did not indicate specific numbers.

The opening ceremony will take place on July 23 amid the state of emergency without ordinary spectators but with "Olympic VIPs" such as IOC representatives, foreign dignitaries, officials of international sports associations, members of each country's Olympic committee, and broadcasters with broadcasting rights for the Games in the stadium stands. The Organizing Committee by saying, "Organizers are not spectators," is giving special privileges only to the Olympic VIPs.

The holding of the Olympics under the current situation risks chaos and will only increase the risk of further spreading COVID-19 infections. The Olympic Games this summer should be cancelled.

Past related articles:
> Tokyo JCP in its campaign pledges includes cancellation of Summer Games [May 14, 2021]
> Mobilization of many nurses to Summer Games during pandemic will weaken Japan’s healthcare system [April 25 & 27, 2021]
> Tokyo organizers intend to force schoolchildren to attend the Summer Games without protection against COVID-19 [May 2, 2021]