Japan has decided to host the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics without foreign spectators due to public concern over COVID-19 and contagious variants in many countries, reported local media on Wednesday.
A decision on the possibility of foreign spectators being allowed was deferred until March end by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The government, organising committee, IOC and more relevant bodies are expected to hold a remote meeting next week to make a formal decision.
Kyodo News said the opening ceremony of the torch relay on 25 March would also take place without spectators and with limited participants.
“The organising committee has decided it is essential to hold the ceremony in the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima behind closed doors, only permitting participants and invitees to take part in the event, to avoid large crowds forming amid the pandemic,” Kyodo said, quoting the officials.
The Japanese government has concluded that allowing overseas spectators into the country could do more harm than good. The organising committee had said a decision would be made based on the state of infections in Japan, in other countries, possible preventive measures and scientific advice.
“With all the work being done around vaccinations and the huge sacrifices large parts of the world have made over the last year, I would hope that fans (international and domestic) will be able to attend (the Tokyo Olympics), of course it would be better,” said Sebastian Coe, key figure behind the 2012 London Olympics and now president of World Athletics, to news agency Reuters.
“However, if local communities are concerned, then athletes will accept that and it is a trade-off they are prepared for.”
Absence of overseas fans will have an impact on the finances of the Games and Japanese economy as well. Ticket sales were projected to bring in $800 million or about 12% of the Games' budget. Historically, though, local ticket sales have typically contributed to 70-80% of ticket sales.
About a million foreign spectators were expected to enter Japan, and 4.45 million tickets had already been sold in the country. Of those, 810,000 requests for refund had been made. Now, with this decision, refunds would need to be made to international ticket holders. Additionally, it creates a separate headache for IOC to decide on foreign spectators to be invited by corporate sponsors.
A Yomiuri Shimbun poll showed 77 per cent of the respondents were against allowing foreign fans versus 18 per cent in favour. About 48 per cent were against allowing any spectators into venues and 45 per cent were in favour.
In December, a government-led panel said in an interim report that overseas spectators could use public transport and be exempt from 14-day quarantine if they were from countries with relatively few COVID-19 cases.
In parallel, more options were considered to hold the Games behind closed doors or staging them with limited domestic spectators.
“We would really like people from around the world to come to a full stadium, but unless we are prepared to accept them and the medical situation in Japan is perfect, it will cause a great deal of trouble also to visitors from overseas,” Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Japanese committee, had said last week.
Hashimoto has said she wants a decision made on overseas spectators before the start of the torch relay.
On 5 March, Suga said the emergency will be extended through 21 March for Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures, where the ongoing measure was to end on 7 March. He said medical systems in the region were still burdened with COVID-19 patients and more hospital beds have to be freed.
The Olympics have already been postponed by a year because of the pandemic and are scheduled for 23 July opening ceremony to 8 August. The Paralympics are slated to take place between 24 August and 5 September.
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