Tokyo Olympics seem sure to happen — but in 2021, not 2020

Well...looks like Canada just pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics.

The real reason this is starting to become real for them is because several athletes from America, Australia, and several European countries have gone public and stated that they will be boycotting the Olympics. While others are starting to speak out against holding the Olympics.

If athletes refuse to participate, you can't have the olympics.

This must be really hurting the Japanese governments pride. Expect a wave of excuses to follow shortly.

Thank you Canadian athletes for standing on guard for thee

Until there is a vaccine there should be no international sports.

Imagine what would happen to us if we spent our time at work flogging a dead horse for months?

The IOC is responsible for making any final decision on the Games

Abe doesn’t have the final say so we can cut him some slack.

Canada said it would not send its athletes to any Games held this summer, calling on the IOC and International Paralympic Committee to "postpone the Games as a part of our collective responsibility to protect our communities".

This earns respect in the eyes of the world. Hurting the feelings of the host nation versus saving lives is a no brainer.

May be inevitable?

has been to anyone with half a brain cell for quite some time.

ModeratorToday  01:11 pm JST

Readers, please note that it is not Abe's decision to make and refrain from making snide remarks. This is a serious topic and we wish all readers to engage in meaningful discussion. That means no Japan-bashing, please.

> Not surprised, you couldn't resist the urge to show your true colors of stifling discussion. Why not just moderate instead of acting as a mole of who knows what.

> You hold posters to some arbitrary subjective standard while holding yourself to no standard. It is called dictatorship. Get off your high horse of thinking JT is doing posters a tremendous service on the contrary it is we the posters doing JT a tremendous service.

> Jumping into a thread and rubbishing a posters thread and then deleting the thread is outright dictatorship and something to expect from a country like NK.

> If you think it is rubbish you should join the discussion and state your position. You cannot be the prosecutor, judge and jury at the same time.

> Pointing out the obvious is not necessarily Japan bashing and doesn't mean hatred of Japan as you seem to think.

> Why not make it clear to posters that only pro Japan discussions are

> Tolerated here on JT.

> I know you will delete this as fast as you see it. I am Writing this to let you know you are causing tremendous damage to JT and if you don't tone down, a time will come there will no one here on JT for you to bully or threads to delete.

> There is a saying that a word to the wish is sufficient.

> Thanks for reading.

excellent excellent post!

I would also like to expand on it:

Readers, please note that it is not Abe's decision to make and refrain from making snide remarks.

We all understand that it is ultimately IOC who decides whether or not the Olympics will be cancelled, BUT Abe is the PM of the Host nation and he could and should have shown leadership by asking the IOC to postpone it. He didn't. In the end, the canadians just said well we are not coming. That took leadership, and it did have an effect on the IOC as they are now in serious discussions since you now have countries that have elected not to come at all. You're right that it isn't Abe's call at the end, BUT its not as if he didn't have ANY sway neither.

This is a serious topic and we wish all readers to engage in meaningful discussion. That means no Japan-bashing, please.

Ok lets get one thing straight: Abe bashing is not Japan bashing. I bash Japan's leadership the same way I bash my own country's leadership under Boris Johnson. Doesn't mean I hate my country. I also LOVE Canada with a passion, but I continually bashed its former PM Steven Harper as much as I do Abe now.

Cancel them already and pass all the funds from selling off items to victims of 3/11 STILL waiting for better housing.

I don't want to be the pessimist here but 2021 is still too early. It is unlikely there will be a vaccine by then, or even if there is vaccinating the entire world populace is someway off. Without a vaccine corona virus is here to stay. The moment air travel or any kind of travel resumes it will spread again. 2022 would be a better choice but there are other world events scheduled. The best solution is compete cancellation.

With this decision, is anyone expecting a surge in testing in Japan ?

Well, dur.

Entire countries are pulling out, logistically impossible at the moment.

noriahojanenToday 12:31 pm JST

Very few were able to predict the current situation. Just a month ago, it is suggested that London would be an alternative venue for the Games. Instead, the city is now near lockdown.

Nori-kun, that wasn't a serious suggestion, it was just some Tory failure in the London mayoral election looking for a cheap PR hit.

Does this mean that my Tokyo 2020 Olympics 100 yen coins are worth a lot more?

I totally agree with you drlucifer. Japan Today should be a forum for free discussion. This time the moderator overstepped their mark.

Despite the measures, tens of thousands of people flocked to a cauldron displaying the flame in northeastern Japan, raising fears about whether the relay can be held safely.

This made me laugh. How can people do this. Do they not know what 'social distancing' means?

Yep, as me and others posted here weeks ago. No athletes = no Olympics. WTF is the IOC and JOC thinking?

That was rhetorical question, by the way. You already know the answer.

Our athletes are respected and the complaint was the IOC had no humanity in their deliberations for the consequences of their actions affected athletes, thus Canada sports body after body stated their demand for postponement. There was also solidarity with the USA swim team who had earlier also demanded change. Which lead to other countries doing the same.

Once Canada is on board, you're done. Yes it's inevitable because there are no leaders in Japan, who could have saved everyone a lot of hassle if they had been honest about it or cared about people.

Bach is also blindsided by his own arrogance.

Tokyo Sapporo 2021?

So does this mean Japan can now post their real Covid infection numbers?

London can host 2020 Games if moved over coronavirus - mayor candidate

He is a Tory crackpot who was looking for a headline.

Assuming this is a majority view would be like taking one of Aso’s brain farts and taking it to be a majority view.

Well...looks like Canada just pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics.

because canada has excellent leadership while we're stuck with...the LDP.

Dragged kicked and screaming to finally state the blindly obvious. Unsurprisingly , strong gaikoku pressure is the only thing Shinzo grudgingly responds to.

Exactly! Abe could have showed strong leadership and postponed them himself by telling Bach that holding them in the summer would not be prudent. However, he chose to drag his feet and then put his foot down and insist on the olympics still to be held in summer. It took other world leaders to make the decision for Japan, and Abe is still going to look like a jackass on the international stage and only offer meely mouthed replies as to why he didn' t cancel them himself.

It is obvious that the countries with medical meltdown cannot attend. Those countries should consider the patients rather than Olympic.

From The Nation:

Why haven’t the Olympic games been canceled? Each Olympic city is required to sign a host city contract with the IOC that puts locals on the hook for cost overruns. The contract also affords the IOC enormous latitude to withdraw the Games. One section of the 81-page Tokyo 2020 host city contract states that the IOC can terminate the contract and yank the Games “if the IOC has reasonable grounds to believe, in its sole discretion, that the safety of participants in the Games would be seriously threatened or jeopardised for any reason. This means that it is not Prime Minister Abe, nor anyone in the host country for that matter, who has the final word on whether the show in fact goes on. That responsibility—or “sole discretion”—rests on the shoulders of the International Olympic Committee and its president, Thomas Bach, and thus far, the IOC’s belief—even in this climate—is that the Olympics are too big to fail."

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cancel-olympics-coronavirus/

It would have been helpful if this had been made clear to the readers here and the Japanese public in general. Although I can see why politicians wouldn't want this widely known.

As of Sunday, Japan had 1,719 confirmed cases of the virus, including 712 from a cruise ship, with 43 deaths.

2 days ago the number of confirmed cases were 1,728 reported on this very same site... So now the media doesn't even give a damn to cover up the government's deceptive actions? They just simply lie in our face and call it a day or what?

And even if the earlier count was different because of some calculation error, does anybody seriously believe that the number of cases has not grown during the weekend? There are reports of new suspected clusters in Japan each day... SMH

drlucifer well said!!

i get my posts deleted on a reg basis..

JT ....sigh

It seems that the recourse for postponement has already been set in. Details over timetable and other logistics will be left for further negotiations. Blame the virus, or initial cover-ups.

Quick, practical advice: You don't need to scrap and re-produce all print materials. When it comes to the Olympics logo, just mend the last digit from 0 to 1 for 2021, with a patch :) That's more efficient, more eco-friendly and less costly.

So, it would seem that common sense has beaten politics and profit. However, at this stage, there is nothing to say the spread of the virus will be under control next year. Many people are still not taking the social distancing seriously nor are they washing their hands regularly. This virus will never be under control unless everybody starts to follow the directives of health organizations seriously.

This outcome was so blindingly obviously even six weeks ago.

The fact that so much attention and time has been spent on ‘going ahead with plans’ instead of diverting all available budget and political man-hours to properly addressing this virus and public health concerns is, quite frankly, worthy of all the ‘bashing’ it gets.

We all understand that it is ultimately IOC who decides whether or not the Olympics will be cancelled, BUT Abe is the PM of the Host nation and he could and should have shown leadership by asking the IOC to postpone it. He didn't. In the end, the canadians just said well we are not coming. That took leadership, and it did have an effect on the IOC as they are now in serious discussions since you now have countries that have elected not to come at all. You're right that it isn't Abe's call at the end, BUT its not as if he didn't have ANY sway neither.

Well said. Any politician, regardless of party and ideology, is a coward without any morals from the very moment that money is prioritized over human lives. That is the reason why Shinzo Abe deserves to be called out by responsible Japanese citizens and responsible foreigners alike in this context.

As for Thomas Bach, it only perpetuates corruption within the IOC since it first became public under Samaranch. The more it goes, the less it changes.

Park it until 2021!

Least financial impact is parking as hopefully (by 2021) spectators can travel to attend. Athletes would attend as the Olympic are more prestigious than World Championships IMHO. Adjusting training schedules shouldn’t be a big issue, if anything an extra year training might lead to better performances and records broken.

The current ticket holders can get a full refund if unable to attend or refund all tickets and restart ticketing later this year? Not sure which would be more time and cost consuming though? Probably the former.

Worse case would be cancelling which could be done in 2021 anyway if they park it til 2021.

Not even Arashi can save them now.

Arashi might have to postpone their plans for a break.

No wonder Olympics take 4 years to plan per cycle, it is filled with people without foresight.

Glad that the country leaders are finally able to make the call to protect their people.

It would be asking to much for those in power to actually care about those who are being impacted.

However, they don’t until the situation becomes unmanageable and they are forced to do what should have been done in the first place...

@M3M3M3

 It seems unfair to leave Japanese taxpayers bearing the entire cost for such an unexpected and costly rescheduling of an international event.

Would you propose to share the profit with the participating countries' taxpayers too when the olympics eventually takes place?

Also if Japanese taxpayers don't like the costs of the olympics they could have chosen to refuse hosting the olympics by holding a referendum as other countries (Germany, Hungary) did. Or could have also negotiated better terms with the IOC which they also failed to do.

Excellent. This is the best news all week.

This is what I’ve been hoping for since this awful situation started!

Look, a scheduled Olympics would be a disaster, and a delayed till Fall would be filled with tension and incongruent for other reasons. A Summer 2021 gives time to get over this and keep the economic drive to Olympics in motion. It would be a joyous occasion. This assumes, I know, that the disease is behind us long before. But I dare to think, yes, it will be mainly in the rearview mirror,

In terms of economy, given that visitors will be an all time low, pushing it another year will be better to boost the economy.

Finally outside pressure has brought this country and the IOC back to their senses.

It's almost like Tokyo and Japan will be the last to find out.

Very uncouth.

-- Very responsible.

There. I fixed it for you.

Do they not know what 'social distancing' means?

Rhetorical question, right?

Of course they don't. Tape a small piece of paper to the wall and 3 more rush in to "help."

Japan's politicians fell in line quickly

That's what they do best!

Maybe 2021! Who really knows.

All i heard is the news about this event... meanwhile... 25 people in my company will be out by May.

Rant over.

No presumptions at all. Well, other than on your part.

Quote take directly from the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) press release: "The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring. While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community."

Let me guess, a septic, right?

With all respect I have for the athletes and all the efforts they are doing for the OG, this is just an entertainment event meant to generate big money for the sponsors.

Billions of people and millions of companies are much more affected by this pandemic.

I am not sure that even anybody is still interested in this show actually.

@Dr. Theopolis

Well...looks like Canada just pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics.

Well, here it is Japan. Here is you face saving chance.

Well I guess at this point, it is in evitable. I mean, I don’t know exactly how much Time is near for preparation, for these last few months, but it’s obviously not enough considering COVID-19.

And yeah, postpone it by a full 12 months, so I can be held at the exact time for you that was supposed to be. This would also clear it out of the way of the basketball and hockey playoffs, but also before the NFL season as well, for America of course.

3 trillion yen deficit due to postponement of the Olympics.

the cursed Olympics indeed.

You mean all the money they got for the 3/11 triple disaster and ended up spending on the 2020 Olympics is now wasted! ...At night when you turn off the lights are you not afraid of the displaced spirits??? You should be!!!

2021 looks both likely and reasonable. By that time, the Corona panic will have blown over, and the facilities don´t run away.

I think the IOC and Abe should make the decision sooner than later.

It seems that wise heads will now prevail. As I have always stated since this awful pandemic broke out, Summer 2021 is the best time to schedule them. IOC has suddenly now realized this.

The party next year when hopefully this pandemic is well behind us (after a vaccine is discovered) will be unprecedented. They will be dancing on the streets of Tokyo and Sapporo non-stop for 3 weeks!

I'd really like to see 2022. I'm sure the wealthiest and best equipped countries will be up and ready for 2021. I suspect that some of the poorer nations, and less well-equipped to deal with the virus, will still struggle to produce teams capable of their peak performance. It might be good to have summer and winter games in the same year for once...

They could just postpone till cooler in tokyo, like October or march next year. That way the issue of athletes passing out in the heat is addressed too...and they get to stay in Tokyo.

My cruise ship for olympics idea would be good to book now since they are highly discounted...wonder why?:]

@williB why do you claim the coronavirus will have 'blown over' by next year?

Lets do it Japan, 2021, it will be the ultimate (worldwide) recovery Olympics and the biggest celebration!

The World Cup is in 2022, if it clashes with the Olympics I guarantee the football will pull in the TV audiences.

The World Cup is in 2022, if it clashes with the Olympics I guarantee the football will pull in the TV audiences.

No one ever talked about 2022 thus far. As of now, 2021 is a very, very good shout for setting up the Olympics.

@Luddite:

Because of the enormous ressources being thrown at the thing by everybody. This is a unique situation where almost the entire world is at war against a common enemy. And I would never bet against humans when they are united and at war. This friggin virus has no chance.

It is vaguely possible that there still is no vaccine for the thing in Summer 21. But effective treatments and treatment protocols? You bet.

Will other countries be pledging any financial assistance to offset the cost of rescheduling the games? It seems unfair to leave Japanese taxpayers bearing the entire cost for such an unexpected and costly rescheduling of an international event.

it's called insurance. They're covered

@fogetti

Would you propose to share the profit with the participating countries' taxpayers too when the olympics eventually takes place?

Well, given that no Olympics has turned a profit for the local organising committee in over 30 years (and this one will be no exception) it's a bit of a moot point. Of course the IOC will walk away with a nice profit on their half of the broadcasting rights less their $800 million contribution to the organising committee.

Also if Japanese taxpayers don't like the costs of the olympics they could have chosen to refuse hosting the olympics by holding a referendum as other countries

I agree and I would have voted against it. Despite my ironic avatar I've been opposed to the Olympics from the start.

My particular point of annoyance here (as a taxpayer) is the way that the Canadian Olympic Committee has said that they will be willing to attend in 2021 without any consideration of who will actually pay to make this possible. It's a bit like inviting yourself to a party that someone else now has to arrange and pay for. Very uncouth.

@sf2k

it's called insurance. They're covered

I'm sure the Tokyo Olympic Committee has taken out cancellation insurance to cover some of its own costs, but not amounts that the taxpayer has provided. In any event, the insurers will undoubtedly refuse to pay out such a large claim on the basis that cancellation of the games was not absolutely necessary, and a massive lengthy legal battle will ensue. In the meantime, the taxpayer will pick up the tab.

-- Very responsible.

There. I fixed it for you.

Yes, it may be very responsible to withdraw your own athletes from the games given the circumstances, but it's something else entirely to presume that a.) the event will be completely cancelled due to your non-attendance, b.) the host city will be willing to postpone/reschedule, and c.) the games will be postponed to the specific date that you mention as preferable.

The polite approach would have been to just express a desire to protect the athletes and offer assistance if a postponement decision is reached.

Will other countries be pledging any financial assistance to offset the cost of rescheduling the games? It seems unfair to leave Japanese taxpayers bearing the entire cost for such an unexpected and costly rescheduling of an international event.

If Japan conveys the financial challenges of hosting a postponed Olympics, she might be able to have China contribute. If Japan insists an apology and compensation for spreading the virus which is unlikely, you’re probably not going to get anything, bilateral relations will worsen instead; case in point, Japan and Korea. Japan is a super advanced nation EQ wise. Make the emotional quotient work for you.

@Bruce Chatwin

Quote take directly from the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC)

Your quote seems to illustrate my complaint quite well, and it actually shows the extent of the COC's ineptitude in even understanding the process.

For example, they call on the IOC to postpone the games, which is something the IOC cannot actually do. The IOC can cancel the games outright, but it requires the mutual consent of the Japanese Olympic organising committee (to stay on for however long it would take to reschedule the games) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to authorise the new event. The COC makes no mention of any Japanese stakeholders and this is my complaint. They throw out this idea of a 1 year postponement which will create the presumption that this is actually feasible (you can already see it on this forum) when the reality on the ground in Tokyo might mean that any postponement under 2 years is just not realistic. (For example, the questions surrounding the availability of the athlete's village). It's not very professional or considerate behaviour is it? Especially for Canadians.

@TrevorPeace

Are there not uncouth individuals to be found within every nationality?

ModeratorToday  01:11 pm JST

Readers, please note that it is not Abe's decision to make and refrain from making snide remarks. This is a serious topic and we wish all readers to engage in meaningful discussion. That means no Japan-bashing, please.

You have my full support!

No matter how Plan B is arranged, It will gain wider support and cooperation. It's the virus, not Japan or IOC who are to blame.

Very few were able to predict the current situation. Just a month ago, it is suggested that London would be an alternative venue for the Games. Instead, the city is now near lockdown.

London can host 2020 Games if moved over coronavirus - mayor candidate

www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-tokyo-olympics/london-can-host-2020-games-if-moved-over-coronavirus-mayor-candidate-idUSKBN20E0OK

TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) - London would be ready to host the 2020 Olympics if the outbreak of the coronavirus forced the Games to be moved from Tokyo, Shaun Bailey, the Conservative candidate for mayor of the British capital, has said.

Will other countries be pledging any financial assistance to offset the cost of rescheduling the games? It seems unfair to leave Japanese taxpayers bearing the entire cost for such an unexpected and costly rescheduling of an international event.

Thank god, abe came to his senses.

Difficult times.

It is a net loss for Japan that needed them direly. It should be made clear that hosting the Olympics is costing a lot. Japan deserves so better as it is best country in the world for tourism.

Those next Olympics should be a life celebration too.