The central government recently compiled guidelines for municipalities that are registered to host foreign athletes during the time around the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games next summer, about steps to prevent infections with the novel coronavirus.
The guidelines require the implementation of thorough measures at accommodation facilities where the athletes will stay and during transportation, and severely restrict physical contact between the athletes and residents of the municipalities.
As a result, each location will likely be urged to change the plans they had for exchanges with the athletes and to boost their medical preparations.
-- Meetings, tea parties
The Serbian men's wrestling team is scheduled to hold a pre-Games training camp for about a week in Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture.
The city government had planned various events to entertain the Serb athletes, such as classes in which they would teach local children wrestling, an event at which the athletes and local residents would shake hands, and tea parties. There was also to be a chance for the athletes to experience wearing kimono, to help them become familiar with Japanese culture.
However, the guidelines announced on Nov. 12 limit the activities of athletes from overseas to shuttling between hotels and training sites. In addition, they require that exchanges between athletes and local residents not involve physical contact. Instead, such activities are limited to online chats and observing the athletes' practice sessions.
The guidelines also recommend that exchange activities be held after the Games are over, but the Serb athletes are scheduled to return home upon finishing their matches.
An official of the city government expressed embarrassment, saying: "It's become difficult to implement the events as planned. If direct exchanges are not held, it's meaningless to serve as a host town. So we'll think about what we can do with the limited opportunities."
-- Heavy cost burden
According to the guidelines, when foreign athletes are taken to the host towns, vehicles exclusive for that purpose should be used in principle.
If athletes need to use Shinkansen bullet trains or planes because their host towns are far away, local municipal governments will need to implement measures on their own responsibility. These could include separating the paths of athletes and those of ordinary passengers in stations and airports, buying out train cars, or keeping two rows empty in front of and behind athletes' seats.
Judoka from Georgia, a country in the Caucasus, are scheduled to travel to Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, by plane.
The city government will negotiate with airlines to fulfill the guidelines' conditions. However, a city government official said, "It is difficult to finance the cost of the larger number of seats."
Many local governments have voiced concerns about the economic burden of measures to prevent infections with the novel coronavirus. Municipalities can receive financial aid to cover 50% of activity costs if they are registered as host towns, and the central government is considering additional assistance as well.
The Georgian athletes plan to practice at venues including a school that has a high-level judo club, and the national team asked the city government to secure Japanese judoka with whom the athletes will practice.
However, the guidelines require that training sites be rented only for athletes, and avoid having local residents serve as training partners. Therefore, the city government will discuss with the Georgian side about how to comply with the guidelines.
-- Medical services
About 10 participants in athletics and other sports from Barbados, an island nation in the Caribbean, will hold their pre-Games training camp in Nanyo, Yamagata Prefecture, a city with a population of about 30,000.
The challenges that has arisen for Nanyo stems from the guidelines' stipulations regarding medical services for athletes.
If athletes test positive for the virus, the city government should cooperate with a public health center, transport them to hospitals and check others who have had close contact with them, in addition to medical tests to confirm whether the athletes are infected.
However, there is no public health center in Nanyo. The city is covered by a prefectural health center in Yonezawa, a city about 15 kilometers away.
The prefectural public health center also has another host town municipality in its jurisdiction. Thus, if there are many infected people among the athletes and other related officials, it may strain local medical services.
An official of the city government said anxiously, "Depending on the infection situation from now on, the Barbados side may express a desire to cancel the visit and have them stay in the Athletes' Village, which is safer."
-- Deepening ties
Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, is a host town city for Mongolia and has experience accommodating athletes from that country amid the novel coronavirus crisis.
Six Mongolians, mainly participants in Paralympic athletics, visited the city in February for a training camp. They became unable to return home due to the spread of infections and until June, city government officials transported the athletes to their training site using vehicles exclusive for that purpose.
Next summer, dozens of athletes are scheduled to hold training camps in the city prior to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The chief of the city's sports division said emphatically: "We'll accommodate them with the determination to never let athletes get infected just before their appearance in the Games, or residents. If we can provide safe training environments, the bond between the two sides should deepen further."
-- 20 more registered
The host town plan is the first in the history of the Olympics and Paralympics. The aim of the scheme is to spread the excitement of the Tokyo Games all over the nation, and make a wide range of exchanges also after the Games a legacy of the Games.
A total of 507 municipalities had decided to accept athletes from 179 countries and regions as of Oct. 30. Of this number, 20 registered as host towns after the decision in March to postpone the Games to next year.
In-person exchanges cannot be conducted due to the novel coronavirus crisis, but the host towns have continued exchanges through such means as online chats.
In Sumida Ward, Tokyo, which decided in October to accept athletes from Bolivia, the ward office is preparing a video message by junior high school students to cheer the athletes.
An official of the ward office said, "We want to build a relationship that can continue even after the Games."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
