No overseas spectators at Tokyo Olympics mirrors Suga's weak standing

Koike said unless vaccines cover the entire population or a system of vaccine passports, which certify a holder has been inoculated, is established, there is no prospect for the tourism sector to see a recovery for the time being, possibly for the rest of the year.

This will take longer than the rest of the year.

I guess, at least until summer 2022.

Again, it is inevitable. He will be remembered as ‘the fall guy’. Meanwhile, on the ‘2020 Tokyo Olympics’ page, only the women connected to this event are depicted, all smiling or, slightly smirking. They may also ‘take the fall’. Oh yes, there is Bach in the background. Later, this Svengali will slowly slink away. Re: (The IOC Pres. Thomas Bach, on screen, delivers an “opening (?) speech” while Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto listens at a five-party meeting IPC Pres Andrew Parsons(not depicted), Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike & Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa in Tokyo on Sat.{Tokyo 2020 Olympics: It's official: Spectators from abroad will not be allowed at Tokyo Olympics}

I thought that Suga was an uninspiring technocrat.

I was wrong. He is an uninspiring buffoon.

Whole Olympics thing was handled poorly. Should have pushed back to 2024.

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. He has been dropped in to an impossible situation not of his making. What ever his strengths or weaknesses at the point he was handed the poison chalice there were no good options left. The classic fall guy!

I wonder if the same things would have been said about Dear Leader Abe?

Nah...Abe would have told everyone "Let them come!" And waited until two days or so before the games start to retract that and say no!

I miss Abe. At least he had charisma.

The government made the right decision by barring foreign spectators from the Olympics. Allowing them in at this stage of the pandemic is out of the question. But no foreign inspectors means there’ll be plenty of unsold tickets available at discount prices. I wouldn’t mind buying one or two.

Suga is awful. He doesn't appear to have any standing of note within his own party and, for a former spokesman, is actually really bad at engaging the public. He is either woodenly reading out a prewritten announcement or petulantly trying to close down criticism with "I consider that matter closed". His only success is managing to hold up a board with "Reiwa" written on it.

At the next election, the public should really punish the LDP for selecting him.

I miss Abe. At least he had charisma

Never heard it called that before.

who voted Suga anyways?!

Japan is a democratic country.

The people should be allowed to choose its PM. let's start the elections already to kick Suga out.

Still amazes me that the IOC won't allow the olympics to be delayed to 2024. They must be aware of how much money the host country has invested and stands to lose because of this situation.

Many nations are already shying away from hosting the games due to the massive cost involved and this will only make countries even more wary.

The IOC is sending the message that countries are expected to foot the bill and take the fall.

The IOC offered to postpone the Olympics until 2022. Abe refused and insisted on 2021. He was still the prime minister and assumed he would fill out his term which ended in the Autumn of 2020.

Abe wanted The Olympics as his legacy, while he was PM and thusly insisted the Olympics be held in 2021.

So. No matter how incompetent Suga may be, the Olympics belong to Abe and indeed are his legacy.

The IOC offered to postpone the Olympics until 2022. Abe refused and insisted on 2021. He was still the prime minister and assumed he would fill out his term which ended in the Autumn of 2020.

-Richard Gallagher

Is that true? I thought the IOC wouldn't allow it to be delayed to 2022 because it would clash with the winter olympics.

But yeah, I do think a very large part of Abe's resignation was to avoid taking responsibility for the olympic debacle. A responsibility shilling coward to the very end.

who would’ve guessed that ;

sleepy Yoshi is not PM material.

"Strengthening of border controls is one of the few cards Mr Suga has left to show the public that he is strictly controlling the coronavirus,"

the good old “us vs them” card. ... apparently still popular with the Japanese public ...

And what do you expect now?

The LDP had a year to come up with ideas of preventions and start to vaccinate it’s population.

Instead they will be remembered for the GoTo whatever,it’ almost non existent daily test on the population and it’s endless panels of “experts”.

This is the result when you make lead a country by xenophobe right winger dinosaurs.

Let the bankruptcies begin!

@cleo,

'I miss Abe. At least he had charisma

Never heard it called that before.'

Best comment of the day.

Was giggling for a fair while.

""Strengthening of border controls is one of the few cards Mr Suga has left to show the public that he is strictly controlling the coronavirus,"

Except that... who brought in most of this? Japanese returning from overseas trips. Who brought in all the variants? Japanese allowed back in without even the slightest attempt to enforce quarantine -- just requests people do it, which was ignored by many.

So, on top of Japanese being allowed to bring in the virus from overseas, sponsors and the people they invite are perfectly okay, because we all know that they are immune to the virus naturally, of course, and so allowing them in still adheres to safety concerns.

Now, an easy solution would be to do what some other countries are doing: vaccine passports. Allow in those that have been vaccinated, regardless of nationality, and don't allow those in who have not. So, why doesn't the government pursue this route? Simple racism, and the fact that you're more likely to get safe people coming in than you are for them to safely be here, since Japan is leading the world in being the slowest to vaccinate. They are, in effect, allowing only in the highest risk spectators and the rich (sometimes both), because of money, and because there is an election coming up and as usual the locals are scared of a foreign presence.

Capuchin: "Still amazes me that the IOC won't allow the olympics to be delayed to 2024."

Still amazes ME that people don't know why this is not an option. There is already a host, decided, for 2024. Why should that host, which successfully won the bid, give up the right to host? If they VOLUNTEERED to do so, that would be different, but why should they to appease Tokyo? The only option is to allow Tokyo priority for 2032 if they insist on a Summer Games, or give Sapporo the 2030 Winter Games automatically, as it wants.

@expat

What Masato Koike is saying is that they will be difficult to ease travel restriction in the future. What exactly will they be able to use as criteria for allowing traveler which could not be meet for the Olympic ?

Vaccine passport ? Lot of countries are already working on the subject. They need it for business travelers, adding the Olympic on top will just hasten the process.

Possibility to bulb visitors ? Far higher during the Olympic by involving travel operators as a sine qua non.

Possibility to cap number of travelers ? Same.

So what criteria they will use ?

The amount of Japanese people vaccinated ? As pointed in the article, what if some variants (future or existent) were to make them less effective. What if vaccine effect were to last less than hoped ?

The declaration by the WHO the pandemic came at a end ? How long that will be ?

I wonder if the same things would have been said about Dear Leader Abe? Nah...Abe would have told everyone "Let them come!" And waited until two days or so before the games start to retract that and say no!

And, no doubt, he would’ve been lauded to the heavens for his incredible perspicacity and the LDP re-elected with a thumping increased majority.

GaijinjlandToday  08:14 am JST

I miss Abe. At least he had charisma.

Did he? The sight of him smiling always made me feel queazy. See the way he would grin like a muppet on speed when he was trying to be chummy with Donald Trump? That was downright nauseating.

Shinzo Abe should be responsible for the whole Olympic mess in the first place. Not Suga who is the fall guy for Abe.

Minor footnote to all this. Will legal permanent non-Japanese residents be allow to view the Olympics along with the Japanese spectators?