Japan Today
tokyo 2020 olympics

SoftBank's Son raises fresh doubt over Tokyo Olympics

41 Comments
By Sam Nussey

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Thomson Reuters 2021.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

41 Comments
Login to comment

Hey Son, What are you doing to help? Are you going to give the Tokyo 15 billion, if there no games. Talk is cheap. You are all talk.

-48 ( +10 / -58 )

Thank you , Mr Son. And Mikitani san.

we have to go for postponement, not cancellation to put IOC checkmate

41 ( +42 / -1 )

Agree with Robert Maes. The Japanese govt should insist on postponing. If the IOC balks start legal action. We are in the middle of a pandemic. It’s time the world pushed back in these IOC bozos.

40 ( +40 / -0 )

The speaker of the truth, must ride a fast horse.

15 ( +16 / -1 )

TOKYO 2032

15 ( +15 / -0 )

Surely a precedent was set with the first postponement. Surely a good lawyer could argue for further postponement.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Silly man. Concentrate on your business and leave the Olympics to the experts. The IOC don’t tell Mr Son how to run his business and nor should they.

-28 ( +3 / -31 )

Guys, it's not gonna happen.

It's just a game of cat and mouse between the IOC and Japan government.

Nobody wants to bear the costs of cancellation.

Lol and enjoy your lives.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

These big-shots will always pounce on any opportunity to get people to like them.

-16 ( +1 / -17 )

"all of the plans we have in place to protect the safety and security of the athletes and the people of Japan."

What about the other 100,000 that are to join them? Self administered saliva honesty tests? tisk tisk so righteous IOC

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Not really fresh doubts since the are the same doubts that have been running around since it was obvious the city was going to have a pandemic running wild in the city without a significant percentage of the population vaccinated.

Sad for the games actually, every year the are more and more tainted with the kind of problems they were supposed to be the opposite, whatever it happens these games are most likely to be remembered by the scandals and opposition than by the supposed victory over the disease.

16 ( +16 / -0 )

Professor of Tsukuba University Kaoru Yamaguchi, Olympic judo gold medalist and board member of JOC, criticized "It is difficult to find or explain significance of opening the Olympic.

https://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/252040

6 ( +6 / -0 )

They don’t care about 80% of the population, but they may care about the opinion of leaders of industry.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

If one person dies of COVID-19 due to Olympics, there will be hell to pay by IOC and Japanese Government! One death is one too many!!!

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Who and on what authority is it being forced through?

What a horrible translation. Who the heck wrote the English like that? This isn’t criticism of Japan Today because I saw the same translation on a different news site yesterday.

Son’s Japanese, 誰が何の権利で強行するのだろうか, should be translated more like this: Who is forcing the Olympics to happen and on what authority are they doing so?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Virusrex

The WHO and other experts have deemed the games safe with the precautions taken. They have no reason to lie.

-15 ( +0 / -15 )

@falseflagsteve

WHO never said the Games would be safe. They just said organizers were doing their best.

Their statement is available on the IOC website.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

Pim

Their best is good enough and I’ll ensure safety for all. The reputation of the games is at stake and they have taken advice to make sure everyone is safe. This planning has been going on daily for over a year, everything has been taken into account.

-15 ( +0 / -15 )

FFS

Maybe, maybe not. Remains that it is untrue at this stage to say, as you did twice today, that WHO says the Games will be safe.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

A growing list of Sponsors voicing concern... if you want to cancel the Olympics, target the Sponsors.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

The WHO and other experts have deemed the games safe with the precautions taken. They have no reason to lie.

As proved this is false, politicians are the ones saying the games are safe, while hiding the supposed measures are not going to be taken as promised and will not include tens of thousands of people participating in the games. The experts on the other hand have said the games are a risk not justified are very likely to complicate importantly the situation in Tokyo.

https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n962

Trusting politicians is never something recommended, trusting politicians against the opinion of experts is much less so, doing it even when they have been found to openly misrepresent the situation to deceive the people is frankly irrational. Planning for vaccines went up for more than a year, and you can still see how badly botched the thins is to this day.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Pim

In fact the WHO have stated publicly that they have confidence that the games will be safe.

-12 ( +0 / -12 )

Virusrex

The IOC are experts and they take advice from experts. The games have been deemed safe to hold.

-13 ( +0 / -13 )

The IOC are experts and they take advice from experts. The games have been deemed safe to hold.

Publicly they have declared they hope the games will be safely held, but are leaving the decision to the local government, they take absolutely no responsibility recommending the games to be held.

"We have confidence that the International Olympic Committee and the host city Tokyo and the government of Japan will make the right decision on how best to manage the risks and they are working extremely hard right now to ensure that those risks are well-managed,"

The government has openly tried to deceive people making it seem as if the games are going to be isolated, while actively hiding the tens of thousands of volunteers that are going to be piercing daily that "bubble" are not going to be isolated nor tested. The local experts are among those that have said this is an unjustified increase of risk.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I’ll ensure safety for all. 

So, I guess you'll be personally be taking responsibility if something goes amiss during the Games.

Please leave your details at the front desk so that we can contact you.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

@falseflagsteve

Here we go again...

Statement of WHO on IOC Website, a repeat of what virusrex just posted: WHO has "confidence that the International Olympic Committee and the host city Tokyo, and the Government of Japan, will make the right decisions regarding how best to manage the risks, and are working extremely hard right now to ensure that those risks are well managed".

Here is the link: https://olympics.com/ioc/news/who-ioc-organisers-and-japanese-government-working-extremely-hard-to-ensure-risks-are-well-managed-at-olympic-games-tokyo-2020

Now please provide your quote and your link where WHO states that "the Games will be safe".

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Pim

Exactly, they have confidence which means they are confident they will be safe. Many he have posted before that WHO were against the games, total falsehood. The WHO does not have concerns it considers them safe.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

FFS

It is nowhere in this statement that they are confident that the Games will be safe. They are confident that organizers will do their best to manage risks.

Too bad you don't get the nuance but it's ok, others will hopefully.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Pim

Thats how they always talk with these matters. They will never declare publicly anything is safe. That’s how the political arm works, its well known. If they had concerns, they would publicly state. They do not have a vested interest in the games.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

It's refreshing to know that both international media, Japanese business people, and some Japanese media realize that the Tokyo Olympics are a bad bet.

Keep the pressure on the Japanese Government!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@falseflagsteve I have confidence the WHO and IOC are corrupt as hell. The IOC are experts you say. Really? Experts at graft maybe.

Your trust in them is truly bizarre. What do you mean they do not have a vested interest in the games? How do you think these otherwise useless old farts get filthy rich and live in castles in the Swiss Alps?

I would say next to FIFA the IOC is the most corrupt organization in the world. All the evidence is out there. Just Google it

9 ( +9 / -0 )

@Pim, thanks for the link. Looked over the WHO website and could not find it.

I think before reading IOC article, people should listen to what was exactly said :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ei_B-Z8rM&t=1153s

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Stickman1760

Actually I said the WHO doesn’t have a vested interest in the games. There are many conspiracy theories about these days, I read many daily on this site mostly regarding Covid.

In the context of safety of the games I am not talking about their financial matters. The IOC ensure and have ensured in the past the safety of the athletes, their entourages and the attendees.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

Japan missed their chance to have a 2nd postponement. The IOC made it clear to them last year, it the games is not held in 2021 forget it. Tokyo should have insisted at that time they have the right to postpone till 2022.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Imagine if the Japanese population expressed openly their dissatisfaction about their government? Let's see it. Get out and protest!

No?

Well, let the Olympics roll. Nothing anyone can do about it.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Is it too late to postpone it until October or November? The extra 3 months of vaccinations would help a lot and it will be a lot cooler so you don't have to worry about people being hospitalized from the August heat and humidity.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Mr Suga, Rule Number One: Listen to the people.

Rule Number Two: Comply with Rule Number One.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Their best is good enough and I’ll ensure safety for all. The reputation of the games is at stake and they have taken advice to make sure everyone is safe. This planning has been going on daily for over a year, everything has been taken into account.

Oh FFS...’Their best is good enough’ is just not good enough.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites