Tokyo 2020 "inflexible" on hosting the Olympic Games this summer

Those responsible for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, scheduled for this summer after being postponed last year because of the pandemic, are "inflexible" on this new schedule, told AFP the director general of the organizing committee Toshiro Muto.

However, he did not rule out that the Games could possibly be held without spectators, while the coronavirus is still raging in the world, including in Japan.

"Holding the Games is our inflexible course and, at this stage, we are not discussing anything else," Muto said in this interview on Tuesday.

The scenario of a cancellation "is not under discussion", he insisted.

Some six months before the opening ceremony, the specter of the cancellation has yet returned to haunt the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in recent weeks.

Faced with record cases of coronavirus, a state of emergency system was reinstated this month in much of Japan, including Tokyo and its suburbs, as in the spring of 2020. Worried that the event will worsen further the local spread of the Covid-19 disease, more than 80% of Japanese are now very reluctant to organize the Olympics this year, preferring either a further postponement or an outright cancellation, according to a recent survey.

Taro Kono, key minister in the Japanese government, recognized last week that nothing should be excluded on the fate of the Olympics.

And the former deputy chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee, Keith Mills, said Tuesday to the BBC that it was "improbable" that the Tokyo Olympics could be held this summer.

“Obviously, the conditions to be put in place will be very important,” concedes Muto, “and it goes without saying that we need the understanding and support of the people.

We want to prepare for the Games based on these principles ”.

"The health situation in Japan and around the world is very serious, and it is normal that a lot of people are nervous," he notes again.

If we can organize an event the size of the Olympic Games in the midst of a pandemic, then the Tokyo model will become part of our heritage ”.

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