A man in a face mask stands behind the Olympic symbols of the five intertwined rings depicted near the National Stadium in Tokyo.
James Matsumoto, SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty images
A senior Japanese ruling party official said canceling this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo remains an option if the coronavirus crisis becomes too dire, as a fourth wave of infections rises less than 100 days after the Games’ scheduled start.
“If it seems impossible to do it any more, then we have to stop decisively,” Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, said in a comment to broadcaster TBS.
Canceling is “of course” an option, Nikai said. “If the Olympics were to spread infections, what are the Olympics for?” he added.
A major financier of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, party heavyweight Nikai, is known for his candid comments, which come as many other ruling party lawmakers have avoided discussing the hot-button issue of a possible cancellation.
The largest sporting event in the world has been delayed for a year and is being held without international spectators.
Japan is facing increasing coronavirus infections, with numbers rising in Tokyo after the government ends the state of emergency, and Osaka suffering a record number of cases.
The government is continuing preparations to enact social distance measures and other restrictions for the Games beginning July 23, with a scaled-down torch relay underway.
“We will hold (the Games) in a way that is feasible,” Taro Kono, a popular minister responsible for the Japanese vaccination campaign, said in a separate TV show, according to Kyodo News. “That might be without spectators,” he added.
Little support
Polls show that there is little support in Japan for holding the Games during a global pandemic. “Canceling Olympics” was trending on Twitter in Japan on Thursday with more than 35,000 tweets from users.
“When this person says so, the cancellation of the Olympics seems to be a reality,” tweeted @marumaru_clm in reference to Nikai.
Olympic organizers, Japan’s National Olympic Committee, and the Tokyo government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The comments from lawmakers come as health experts are raising the alarm about the spread of infection and the pressure it is putting on the medical system.
Japan’s top medical advisor Shigeru Omi acknowledged that the pandemic had entered a fourth wave driven by mutant strains, with Kyoto University Professor Hiroshi Nishiura in a magazine article urging to delay the Olympics.
Akira Koike, an opposition lawyer at the Japanese Communist Party, responded to Nikai’s comments on Twitter, saying that it is already “impossible” to hold the event and that a decision must be made “quickly” on the cancellation.
Canceling or delaying the Games would likely not hurt the Japanese economy much, but would have a greater effect on Tokyo’s services sector, a senior International Monetary Fund official said Wednesday.