In response to the decision on Monday to accept up to 10,000 spectators at each venue of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Tokyo Games organizing committee will address tasks such as setting up the medical care service system and distributing personnel, within the month remaining until the opening of the Games.
Initially, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games considered that a total of 10,000 doctors and nurses would be needed to manage the Games. However, the organizing committee reconsidered the plan in order to avoid putting strain on regional medical care systems, reducing the figure by 30% to 7,000.
According to the organizing committee, it has already secured 90% of the doctors and 80% of the nurses, and intends to fill the remaining vacancies within June. Medical staff will also be dispatched from the International Olympic Committee. As a result, the organizing committee will likely be able to secure the medical workers necessary for measures against the novel coronavirus, the effects of summer heat and other problems. It plans to determine the numbers of doctors, nurses, first-aid stations, ambulances and so on at each venue.
The organizing committee will also begin making detailed decisions on the deployment of about 70,000 volunteers who will guide and provide information to visitors at each venue. About 10,000 would-be volunteers have withdrawn their participation, mainly due to concerns about the coronavirus.
However, as there are volunteers for the Paralympics who also wish to volunteer at the Olympics, the organizing committee stressed that it would be able to secure the necessary volunteer numbers for the smooth management of the Games.
Regarding the number of security staff in charge of spectators' seats, the organizing committee plans to make decisions based on the scale of spectators at each venue.
In some cases, spectators will be transported by shuttle bus from the nearest railway stations to venues. The organizing committee intends to coordinate the services by holding a meeting of a council of relevant local governments to discuss the services, such as how many busses will be used and how often they will run.
-- Sponsors' expectations
Many sponsor companies welcomed the decision on the 10,000-spectator ceiling at each venue on Monday, saying that it would become easier to hold sales promotion events for the Games.
They released comments that accepted the decision positively. For example, Nippon Life Insurance Co. said that it was important to make the Games safe and secure enough to be welcomed by many people, while NEC Corp. stated that the company would continue to cooperate so that a safe and secure Games can be held for the sake of all the athletes, Games officials, spectators and the Japanese public.
Other comments from sponsor companies included one that "sponsors aim to promote themselves and heighten their name recognition. As even sales promotion events [at or around venues] would be impossible without spectators, it is good to hold the Games with any level of spectators."
Daiwa House Industry Co. expects spectators to use hotels under its umbrella. KNT-CT Holdings Co., which has tourist agency KNT Co. under its umbrella, said that it plans to consider resuming selling tour products that were canceled last year when the Games were postponed.
However, some in the tourist industry still express concern about the pandemic. An employee of another tourism-related firm said: "Even though it was decided to allow spectators in the venues, the tourist industry as a whole will not get a boost. But we still have to deal with the trouble of taking measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus from athletes and spectators."
Toyota Motor Corp. told The Yomiuri Shimbun that the automobile manufacturing firm wanted the relevant authorities to explain, to both the athletes and the Japanese people, the meaning of holding Games amid the pandemic. It also called for a convincing explanation of the safety measures that are being taken.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
