What most people really fear is that a restricted Olympics is the symbol of Japanese politics which has struggled with particular business interests and pressure from abroad.

and pressure from abroad.

Foreigners have this darned tendency to expect you to actually fulfil the obligations you promised in the contracts you sign. A contrast provision states that the Games belongs to the IOC, not the host city, and it thus has the power to cancel the Games. The Japanese were more than happy to sign that piece of paper. Indeed, they were ecstatic, literally with tears of joy in their eyes.

I don't how informed this guy is, but what the vast majority of people are "really worried" about is the coronavirus risk, followed by skyrocketing costs and squandered resources. "Symbol of japanese politics"? Um, whatever.

Oh, jeez... here we go... Japan is the victim here. They can't even control their own politics now, this is the fault of foreign nations.

Japan does not seem to have any backbone when it comes to international politics, whether its over the US military bases, Olympics or North Korea.

I don't how informed this guy is, but what the vast majority of people are "really worried" about is the coronavirus risk, followed by skyrocketing costs and squandered resources. "Symbol of japanese politics"? Um, whatever.

exactly!!!

Oh, jeez... here we go... Japan is the victim here. They can't even control their own politics now, this is the fault of foreign nations.

they are extremely good at playing the victim and blaming the outside world, ne!

With a one-line order, Suga could close down all airports. That would not be breaking any contracts with the IOC.

Well, should really read something before signing it. But they obviously don’t teach that at the schools these people went to, back in 1932.

Spineless

What makes it worse is that 'normal people' on internet message boards have been saying this stuff for months (Olympic related), if not years (Japanese politics related).

It's the people in positions of power and respect, such as this professor, that should have been speaking up about all this stuff and forcing the conversation into the public sphere months and months ago. 10 days before it's set to start is a little bit too late really.

Tokyo Olympic sponsors:

Toyota

Panasonic

Asahi

Canon

NEC

NTT

Nomura

Fujitsu

Mizuno

SMBC

ANA

TOTO

Nissin

JAL

Nikkei

... "pressure from abroad" Really?

This prof doesnt come across as being very smart, quite the opposite in fact......

I don't think so. Rather, it is evident that the government is behaving schizophrenically. Contradictory statements, contradictory measures, numbers that don't add up, etc. In a year's time, they could have made some concrete decisions. But the whole year has been about 'somehow' and 'probably'. Until March or April, we did not even know whether or not there would be an Olympics. Do you understand that? A billion-dollar event and everything is just in some void.

Next, the current ruling faction could use the current situation to its advantage in the next election. As has happened abroad. Regardless of whether it is a positive or negative measure, it can be used to one's advantage. Instead, the government totally blew it and missed the opportunity. The ruling party and the Prime Minister did the same. On the contrary, I think they want to harm themselves, although I do not know why and it does not make sense to me.

Since the government slept through the whole thing, it had to make a late move to accommodate foreign organisations in order to avoid possible sanctions or international embarrassment. This was also at the expense of the situation here.