In response to the spread of the new coronavirus, the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is considering scaling down related events such as the arrival and departure ceremonies of the Olympic torch scheduled to start in March, with the possibility of spectators not attending.
The organizing committee intends to make a final decision after assessing the situation of infections in Japan.
The committee will compile a basic policy on the torch relay as early as next week and have prefectural governments decide how to respond to related events.
The torch will be flown from Greece to the Air Self-Defense Force's Matsushima base in Miyagi Prefecture on March 20. Yoshiro Mori, president of the organizing committee, is scheduled to attend the arrival ceremony. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to attend the torch relay departure ceremony at the J-Village soccer facility in Fukushima Prefecture on March 26.
The organizing committee plans to minimize the number of participants in these events and to hold them without ordinary participants.
The government on Wednesday called for the cancellation, postponement or downsizing of sporting and cultural events where many people would gather for the next two weeks. Although torch-related events will be held after the voluntary suspension period is over, the organizing committee is set to place priority on preventing the spread of the infection.
However, as the torch relay is the biggest event before the start of the Games, it will not be canceled.
Toshiro Muto, director general of the organizing committee, spoke to reporters, "We'd like to consider how to prevent the spread of infection, including the downsizing [of related events]."
The torch will leave Fukushima Prefecture on March 26 and travel around all 47 prefectures. The cauldron will be lit at Tokyo's National Stadium during the opening ceremony on July 24.
Deadline for Games denied
Regarding a late May deadline suggested by a member of the International Olympic Committee for deciding whether to hold the Tokyo Games in the wake of the outbreak of the new coronavirus, Seiko Hashimoto, minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, denied the deadline at a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting Wednesday, saying it "is not the official view of the IOC."
This was the response received by the organizing committee when it asked the IOC for an explanation of the comment about a deadline.
Takahiro Kuroiwa, a lower house lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, quoted IOC member Dick Pound as saying, "you are probably looking at a cancellation" of the Games depending on whether the situation is under sufficient control by late May. Kuroiwa asked for the government's view of the remark.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
