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The Olympic Games in Tokyo remain a political issue
Photo:
Marijan Murat / dpa
Olympic hosts Japan have extended the state of emergency for the Tokyo area by one month despite the falling number of corona infections.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced this.
The current state of emergency for a total of eleven prefectures runs until February 7th, and for ten of them this state is to be maintained until March 7th.
In addition to Tokyo, the three neighboring regions of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama are also affected.
These areas have a total of almost 37 million inhabitants and account for a third of Japan's gross domestic product.
The state of emergency in Japan is not as severe as the lockdown in Germany, for example.
The Japanese are allowed to visit bars and restaurants until 8 p.m.
Japan is comparatively little affected by the corona pandemic.
The country is currently registering more than 5,800 corona deaths, and a good 390,000 people have been infected with the virus in a country with more than 125 million inhabitants.
For comparison: Germany with its 83 million inhabitants has so far recorded more than 2.2 million infected people and more than 58,000 deaths in connection with COVID-19.
In Japan, however, the health system is on the verge of collapse.
In the last few days, the number of infections has dropped significantly, on Monday 633 new cases were added, on Tuesday only 393 new infections were registered.
For the entire month of January, however, the number was 40,000, twice as much as in December.
IOC and OK are only considering one way
Despite the ongoing tense situation in the country, the organizers of the Olympics reaffirmed on Tuesday that the Summer Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8 as planned.
OC boss Yoshiro Mori declared that the games would take place “however the corona pandemic develops.” Instead, one should think about “how we should organize the games.
You have to think about a new kind of Olympia, ”Mori said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is also fully behind this plan.
According to President Thomas Bach, the task of the IOC is “to organize the Olympic Games and not to cancel them.
We work on it day and night. "
However, both sides leave it open how such an event with athletes, officials and journalists from all over the world should look like.
It is also unclear how the majority of athletes think about the plans of the IOC and OK - especially since it is still uncertain how unqualified athletes (according to the IOC, 25 percent) will qualify for the Games in Tokyo.
In the team of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), 223 of the approximately 400 planned places for Tokyo have so far been allocated.
Many athletes currently have no idea how the open places will be allocated.
There is little support in the Japanese population.
In a survey, around 80 percent had spoken out against an alignment in the coming summer.
Eleven months ago, those responsible around Bach had also spread confidence for a long time only to have to bow to pressure from athletes and the public.
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