The Japanese Prime Minister and the organizers of the Tokyo-2020 Olympics, postponed last year due to the pandemic, reaffirmed on Friday their intention to hold them this summer, despite press reports according to which the government was secretly there waived.
"I am determined" to host a "safe" Olympic Games in Tokyo, as a sign of "humanity's victory over the new coronavirus," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in particular during a parliamentary session.
In a statement, the Tokyo-2020 organizing committee also recalled on Friday that it was "fully focused" on preparations to host the Games this summer, in unison with the Japanese government and the city of Tokyo, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Games in Tokyo in 2032?
According to the British newspaper The Times, which quoted a source within the ruling coalition in Japan on Thursday, the Japanese government has already secretly declared the impossibility of organizing the Olympic Games this year, due to the global upsurge of Covid -19, including in Japan.
To save face, the government would seek to ensure beforehand that Tokyo organizes the 2032 Olympics, the next available edition (after Paris-2024 and Los Angeles-2028), according to the Times.
Last week, a key minister in the government of Mr. Suga, Taro Kono, had already expressed a discordant voice, believing that nothing should be excluded for the Tokyo Olympics this year.
Fearing that the event will further exacerbate the pandemic in the country, Japanese public opinion is overwhelmingly currently opposed to organizing the Tokyo Games this summer, advocating a further postponement or outright cancellation, according to recent polls.
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