JOC chief Yamashita: report on Japan govt private decision on Olympics cancellation "fabrication"

FILE PHOTO: Yasuhiro Yamashita, President of Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), delivers a speech during the the display ceremony for the Olympic Flame at the Olympic Museum in Tokyo, Japan August 31, 2020. Rodrigo Reyes Marin/Pool via REUTERS

Japanese Olympic Committee head Yasuhiro Yamashita said on Friday that a report that the Japanese government had privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics would have to be cancelled was false and a "fabrication."

Yamashita made the remarks about a report in The Times in an interview with Reuters.

(Reporting by Jack Tarrant and Sakura Murakami; Editing by Catherine Evans)