Tokyo Olympics must go ahead says organising committee president

The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games organising committee has ruled out  cancelling or postponing the games for a second time. 

Calls for the games to be postponed have ramped up ahead of the scheduled start date of July 23. With host city Tokyo under a state of emergency until at least June 20, some 10,000 volunteers have dropped out of helping to stage the event. A poll from the middle of May found that more than 80% of Japanese people oppose hosting the Olympics this year.

Organising committee president Seiko Hashimoto however has told Nikkan Sports that “we cannot postpone again”.

With the games still planned to go ahead, international fans will not be allowed to travel to Japan for the event while the government is yet to decide whether the Games will be staged behind closed doors. 

A top Japanese medical adviser, Shigeru Omi, has said that it would be “not normal” to stage the games with the current rate of infections in the country and that the event organisers should at least consider scaling it back.