TOKYO (AP) – Tick-Tock-Tick.
The countdown clock for the postponed Tokyo Olympics reached 200 days on Monday.
Tick-Tock-Tick.
Also Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he would consider calling for a state of emergency as coronavirus cases grow to record numbers in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures. Japan has never had a blockade for COVID-19, trying to juggle economic and health risks.
Tick-Tock-Tick.
The deadline is approaching for the Tokyo Olympic organizers, the International Olympic Committee and various Japanese government entities as they try to run the Games in the midst of a pandemic.
Officials have promised to announce concrete plans early in the new year on how to reach 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes in Japan; about the safety of Athlete Village and hundreds of thousands of fans, media, judges, officers, broadcasters and VIPs.
The new year is coming.
Suga pledged again to hold the Olympics, saying it would be “a test that people have overcome the coronavirus.” And he said vaccine approval would be accelerated by a month so vaccinations could begin in February instead of March.
Japan has attributed more than 3,400 deaths to COVID-19, modest by global standards for a country of 125 million, but worrying as new cases increase rapidly. Last month, a poll by national broadcaster NHK shows that 63% want to postpone or cancel the Olympics.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and the governors of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures on Saturday called on the national government to declare a state of emergency after the capital saw a daily record of 1,337 new cases on the night of New Year’s Eve. That meant a jump of almost 400 in a few days.
Yoshiro Mori, chairman of the organizing committee and former prime minister, again ruled out the cancellation of the games in an interview several days ago with the Nikkan Sports newspaper. He was asked when the decision would be made to have local fans or fans from abroad.
“Sometime from March to May,” he replied. “The final deadline to make a decision would be May, but it may come sooner.”
Any reduction in fans will come to the budget of the organizing committee. Tokyo has budgeted $ 800 million for ticket sales, and any deficits will have to be offset by government entities, which support most of the Olympic bills.
The official budget for the Tokyo Olympics rose last month to $ 15.4 billion, an increase of $ 2.8 billion due to the delay. However, several government audits in recent years suggest that the actual number is about $ 25 billion.
All but $ 6.7 billion is public money.
Mori indicated that the opening ceremony, scheduled for July 23, could be problematic, as thousands of athletes and officers gathered to parade through the stadium. He also suggested that the ceremony could not be shortened, as TV stations had paid for lucrative time. He said some officials could be removed from the parade.
Television determines much of the Olympic programming and the sale of broadcasting rights accounts for 73% of IOC revenue. Another 18% comes from big sponsors like Coca-Cola and Toyota.
The torch relay, which begins March 25, will also face people with 10,000 runners scheduled for nearly four months. Coca-Cola and Toyota are the main sponsors.
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