Tokyo Olympic head says Bach visit to Japan now unlikely

Hopefully this means Game Over!

Canceling the trip could be embarrassing for the International Olympic Committee and local organizers who say they can hold a "safe and secure" Olympics in the middle of a pandemic as cases surge in Japan - particularly in Tokyo and Japan's second metropolis of Osaka.

It would be more embarrassing to try and host the Olympics. All the time, money and resources lost trying to force the event could have been spent with assisting with the vaccination.

There would be more support and respect if you had just cancelled it earlier this year and say that you will focus efforts to taking care of the people of Japan first. I don't think any one would think less of you, Japan. I don't see it as a failure - trying the force the event would be a failure in my eyes.

Sign of cancellation?

The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Friday that a visit to Japan this month by IOC President Thomas Bach seemed unlikely with a state of emergency order being extended by the government to Tokyo and other areas until May 31.

This, among other things dealing with the LDP government policy, is well characterized by the phrase "like watching a train wreck in slow motion".

"It would quite tough for him to come now"

They can't even let in one person now but expect to receive thousands of athletes, officials, and staff in 11 weeks?

BTW, I really don't want to see the Summer Olympics cancelled. If you look at my posts over the past several months I state that I was looking forward to the 2020 Summer Olympics because of the return of baseball and softball.

However in the larger picture, hosting the summer Olympics anywhere right now would be very irresponsible for any country and I really do not think the upcoming Winter Olympics should happen either, IMHO.

I feel for all the athletes that worked hard for 2020 and 2021, a few of them went into retirement which sucks because I know this is not how they wanted to end their career but at least they understand the bigger picture.

All that said, I have to think that by 2024 this pandemic will be behind us if not then we have a much larger problem!

Japan, do the right thing and cancel the Olympics! You'll get another chance to host and when you do, do it big! :-)

Last year, the Olympics were postponed because Countries (I believe it was Canada first) withdrew out of concern for their athletes. This year, if the athletes have been vaccinated - and they probably will be - those same concerns aren't there to the same degree. So I don't think we'll see countries pull out, even if the games are held under a state of emergency.

Nevertheless, it's going to shine a big fat light on Japan's inability to manage and coordinate a national vaccination campaign. The biggest losers in all this are the residents of Japan.

Its becoming more and more difficult to keep pretending everything is fine and the games represent anything positive.

At this point trying to keep them alive in spite of scandals, confusion, cancellations and protests just to cancel it at the last moment would be almost the worst thing that could happen, the absolutely worst thing would be to hold the games anyway.

This, among other things dealing with the LDP government policy, is well characterized by the phrase "like watching a train wreck in slow motion".

The LDP itself is a train wreck. nuff said.

virusrexToday  07:42 am JST

Its becoming more and more difficult to keep pretending everything is fine and the games represent anything positive.

AMEN!!! :-)

Interesting that all comments without exception, in articles related to the Olympics are against the event, and none of the comments ever has a “dislike”.

This is a clear message that we are all on the same page here in Japan: Cancel the damn event, only the organizers and the very few people who will profit from it want it to go ahead.

Literally no one else wants this greedy event anymore in Japan.

Some scientists have suggested otherwise, and an editorial last month in the British Medical Journal said the Olympics should be "reconsidered."

Don't listen to the experts! Listen to those that profit from the Olympics so they can fund their expensive steak dinners, and their buy me drinks outings!

The Olympics are going South.

So they were going to let Bach, a non-resident, enter Japan and travel around the country (Tokyo, Hiroshima, etc.) without quarantining at all? But I, a resident of over 10 years, was blocked from seeing my sick dad last summer? I call massive BS.

“All that said, I have to think that by 2024 this pandemic will be behind us if not then we have a much larger problem!”

I seriously doubt that

"I know the pressure that you are under," Coe said to Hashimoto. "But mercifully in London, we didn't have the added complexity of worrying about protocols around a pandemic. So you have our sympathy in that extra tier of complexity."

An extra tier of "complexity" you say coe......what a pompous SOB!

My guess is that he wouldn't be very welcome here anyhow. The J-Olympic committee and the J-government may roll out the red carpet but no one else...

It's because of the planned protests during his visit. It would be picked up by the foreign press and Japan generate a lot of negativity and questions would be raised.

The JOC really fear any possible indepth enquiry and resulting fallout.

Got to protect the games at all cost! Except it's all going to backfire. Wait and see. The world is waking up to this nonsense.

This guy should know that the Olympics is not suitable and not wanted.

Coe has a short memory. Zika, meningitis, norovirus have all been concerns at recent Olympic gatherings. The 2012 London Olympics were hit by norovirus, but somehow it was eventually kept under control.

https://cddep.org/blog/posts/will_zika_plague_summer_olympics/

Back in 2011, the Japanese government should have taken a long, hard look at how best money could be spent. It should have declined to hold the 2020 games and diverted the funds to helping the Tohoku region after the 3/11 disasters. For many people living there, the situation is still desperate.

When are we going to blame the government for actually helping to spread the virus through its incompetence and half-measures?

The Mayor of Tokyo, pushing the Olympics in spite of destroying literally thousands of families' ability to earn incomes due to on-again, off-again policies that really do NOT work, should be directly to blame as much as the central government, for any increase in virus spread following the inflow of tens of thousands of incoming athletes, press, promoters, corporate sponsors etc. etc. etc. in the MIDST of a STATE OF EMERGENCY!

Of course, every single government stooge, Suga and Koike included, continue to get paid no matter how much they botch things up, no matter how many lives their ineffective policies destroy. And while vaccinated foreigners come and go with increasing ease? The locals under these incompetents' thumbs sit and wait for their turn, witnessing THE slowest response to this sickness among ALL OECD countries, to say nothing of many much poorer developing ones!

It's beyond embarrassing. It's downright CRIMINAL to hold an international event in the middle of a medical emergency when local people who are paying for this farce continue to suffer and die.

NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR PRECIOUS PRIDE-SHOW OLYMPICS ANYMORE!

He is a smart cookie. He fleeced us all out of $29b and he knows if he comes here, he will seen as a demon, so just away and enjoy luxury life.

A true coward. Quite prepared to let the locals die, but Oh No, not me, I ain't going there.

What would hosting the Olympics actually achieve?

tourists are not going to be sufficient enough to compensate the tourist industry

the majority of athletes will not be able to compete at their best physique due to the lockdown and restrictive situation overseas. Only China has the freedom to provide its athletes the room to train for the Olympics. Many athletes do not want to come to Tokyo either.

"Frankly speaking, I personally think it would be quite tough for him to come now," but LORD Coe is here!!!!

The only embarassment is keeping this canard going. Cancel

Tokyo Yokohama

$$what make$ you thing the game$ are for the athlete$? $$

Hopefully this is the first domino to fall resulting in the cancellation of these accursed games.

And let’s show the IOC that we can live quite happily without them, thank you very much, by boycotting 2022. No more awarding games to totalitarian dictatorships.

The view from outside Nippon's "goldfish bowl" looks very different for things Olympic: Bach to the future (without Covid and Japan) is the only way forward!

Stay away Bach.

Cancel the Olympics outright.

Go home now Lord Coe.

I personally think it would be quite tough for him to come now," organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said at a weekly briefing, adding that "nothing had been decided."

"But the extension of the state of emergency and having him visit during that time will mean that president Bach will be visiting in a quite a difficult time," Hashimoto said. "I think that would be a very difficult thing for him."

So in other difficult words, it would be difficult and tough for Bach to come to Japan during a very difficult time, in the middle of a tough worldwide pandemic. This year has been a tough and difficult one for sure. Basically they are saying and it's difficult to do so, but basically he's a hypocrite? Roughly speaking. Is that what this article is about? It's kind of difficult to say over them using such difficultly redundant tough words in this article.

With so much emphasis on money, sponsorship, fees, tickets, bribes, costs, debts and cancellation fees, perhaps the IOC should be renamed the IOU?

That photograph: a rogues gallery. The Olympics during a pandemic. Beyond foolish. Call it what it would be: a super-spreader event.

The Japan Olympic Committee want 500 Nurses to abandon their jobs, go to Tokyo to help people die.

What does that tell you, Simple? The Games will be a Fatal Super Spreader Event

Thought the organizing committee thought it was perfectly safe. Mixed messages here

Tennis, golf, soccer, rugby is being played worldwide, not a problem, so why not the games?

Just another opportunity for big pharma to show us they got our backs and can keep us safe.

Say thanks to Pfizer and friends

Bach: It’s absolutely safe and secure, and not only a testament to how the nation has overcome COVID-19, a tribute to the victims of the only nation to suffer atomic bombings, and how much the nation restructured after 3/11, but proof of how the virus had been beaten! But, I can’t go. Just wire me the money, thanks.

What's Coe doing here? Go away

""Frankly speaking, I personally think it would be quite tough for him [Bach] to come now," organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said at a weekly briefing, adding that "nothing had been decided."

He would have to confront the mess he is making of Japan with the pandemic in full swing.