More than 80% of the Japanese want the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games to be cancelled or postponed again due to the worsening trend of the coronavirus epidemic, a new poll shows, which is about 17% higher than a month ago.
The survey was conducted by Kyodo News Agency by telephone on the 9th and 10. According to the published survey results, 35.3% of the respondents hope that the Olympic Games will be cancelled and 44.8% hope that the Olympic Games will be postponed again.
A similar poll was published by the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) on December 15, 2020. At that time, the proportion of respondents who hoped that the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games would be cancelled or postponed again was 63%, of which 32% thought the Olympics should be cancelled and 31% thought the Olympics The Games should be postponed again.
The epidemic situation in Japan has continued to worsen since December, and since 2021, the number of confirmed cases has reached a record high.
Prime Minister Yoshihiro Kan announced on the 7th that there will be a state of emergency in Tokyo and the surrounding Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures from the 8th, tentatively scheduled to continue until February 7. All three prefectures have Olympic competitions and training venues.
On January 9, people traveled in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. It was Saturday and the first weekend after the state of emergency in Tokyo, Japan. The flow of people everywhere decreased to a certain extent, and many businesses also adjusted their business hours.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiro Kan announced on the evening of the 7th that the prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures in Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures would be in a state of emergency from January 8 to February 7 and tentatively until February 7.
The government requires people to avoid going out after 20 o’clock, and the restaurant will close at 2 o’clock, but it will not be “locked down” or require schools to close. Photo by Du Xiaoyi, reporter of Xinhua News Agency
Yoshihiro Kan then reiterated that the Japanese government’s determination to host the Tokyo Olympic Games remains unchanged. He said that once the vaccine begins to be vaccinated in Japan on a large scale, he believes that the enthusiasm of the Japanese people for the Olympic Games will certainly increase.
The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee also issued a statement on the 8th that despite the declaration of a state of emergency in Tokyo and the surrounding three counties, preparations for the Tokyo Olympic Games will continue to be “seriously advanced” and the Olympic Games will be held as scheduled in the summer.
According to the data released by the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee on December 23 last year, the budget for the Tokyo Olympic Games reached 1.35 trillion yen before the decision to postpone.
After the decision to postpone, the budget of the event increased by 294 billion yen.
The budget increased by 21.8%. Of the increased budget, the cost of responding to the coronavirus epidemic reached 96 billion yen. A considerable part of these huge budgets have been put into use, and once the Olympic Games are finally cancelled, Japan will suffer an economic disaster.
To this end, Japan is bound to do its best to ensure that the Tokyo Olympic Games can be held.
Although Yoshihiro Kan has repeatedly stressed that the Japanese government’s determination to host the Tokyo Olympic Games remains unchanged, the tension of the epidemic has brought a severe test to the Tokyo Olympic Games.
On January 7, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced that due to the increasing severity of the epidemic, the Olympic torch tour activities in various cities and districts of Tokyo will be temporarily suspended.
The optimism of the Japanese people about the future of the Olympic Games was directly related to the epidemic control situation in Japan at that time. When the postponement of the Olympic Games was announced in March 2020, Japan’s number of new cases in a single day was only hundreds or dozens. Polls showed that 79% of respondents supported the Olympic Games to be held in July 2021.
By July last year, Japan had more than 1,000 new cases in a single day, and polls showed only 24% of The proportion of respondents hoping to hold the Olympic Games in 2021 and hoping to postpone it to 2022 increased to 36%, while the proportion who want to cancel it reached 34%.
By October 2020, the epidemic in Japan eased, with polls showing that 41% of the respondents believing that the Olympic Games can be as scheduled in 2021. At the holding, 26% believe that the Olympic Games may be postponed again, and only 28% believe that the Olympic Games will be cancelled. Recently, with the outbreak of the epidemic again and the number of new cases in a single day, people’s pessimism about the Olympic Games has risen again.
According to the latest news, four tourists who entered Japan from Brazil were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Analysis found that they were infected with the mutant novel coronavirus, and the mutant virus is not exactly the same as the mutant coronavirus found in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
This undoubtedly cast another shadow on the hosting of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Japanese medical experts believe that the possibility of the Olympic Games being held behind closed doors is increasing. Yasuhiro Yamashita, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, also began to relax in an interview on January 4. “Tokyo cannot host an Olympic Games like London and Rio. The format of the Olympic Games will change.
There may be no audience and no interaction between athletes and the public.” Jio Ozaki, president of the Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Association, also said recently that the situation of the Tokyo Olympic Games has become more serious, suggesting that the Olympic Games should be re-prepared “without spectators” to ensure that the Olympic Games can be held as scheduled, otherwise the Olympic Games will be in danger of being cancelled.
