TOKYO (AP) – Tick-Tock-Tick.
The countdown to the Tokyo Olympics reached 200 days on Monday.
Tick-Tock-Tick.
Also on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he would consider declaring a state of emergency as new cases of coronavirus increased and reached record numbers in Tokyo and neighboring city halls. Japan has never had a blockade for COVID-19, trying to balance the economy and health risks.
Tick-Tock-Tick.
The deadline is approaching for the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee and several Japanese government entities as they try to hold the Games in the middle of a pandemic.
The authorities promised to announce concrete plans at the beginning of the new year on how to bring 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to Japan; about the safety of Vila dos Atletas and hundreds of thousands of fans, media, judges, officials, announcers and VIPs.
The new year is here.
Suga again promised to hold the Olympics, saying it would be “proof that people won the coronavirus”. And he said vaccine approval will be accelerated in a month so vaccinations can begin in February, instead of March.
Japan attributed more than 3,400 deaths to COVID-19, modest by global standards for a country of 125 million, but worrisome as new cases increase rapidly. A survey carried out last month by the national broadcaster NHK showed that 63% want the Olympics to be postponed or canceled.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike and Saitama prefectural governors Chiba and Kanagawa asked the national government on Saturday to declare a state of emergency after the capital registered a daily record of 1,337 new cases on New Year’s Eve. This marked a jump of almost 400 in just a few days.
Yoshiro Mori, the chairman of the organizing committee and a former prime minister, again ruled out any cancellation of the games in an interview several days ago for Nikkan Sports. He was asked when it would be a decision about having local or foreign fans.
“Sometime from March to May,” he replied. “The deadline for a decision would be May, but it could come earlier.”
Any reduction in the number of fans will affect the budget of the organizing committee. Tokyo has a budget of $ 800 million for ticket sales and any deficit will have to be made up for by government entities, which bear most of the Olympic accounts.
The official budget for the Tokyo Olympics was increased last month to $ 15.4 billion, an increase of $ 2.8 billion due to the delay. However, several government audits in recent years suggest that the real figure is around $ 25 billion.
All but $ 6.7 billion are public money.
Mori said the opening ceremony, scheduled for July 23, could be problematic with thousands of athletes and officials gathering to parade around the stadium. He also suggested that the ceremony could not be shortened, as television stations paid for the lucrative time. He said that some employees may be excluded from the parade.
Television determines much of the Olympic programming, and the sale of broadcasting rights accounts for 73% of the IOC’s revenue. Another 18% are from major sponsors like Coca-Cola and Toyota.
The torch relay, which begins on March 25, will also face a crowd of 10,000 runners expected in nearly four months. Coca-Cola and Toyota are the main sponsors.
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