tokyo 2020 olympics

Tokyo Olympic head says cancelation not being considered

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Cancellation not being considered is a big problem, because it means it doesn't matter how many people get sick or die the games will be the only priority. Even the declaration itself is problematic.

33 ( +36 / -3 )

Cancellation not being considered is a big problem, because it means it doesn't matter how many people get sick or die the games will be the only priority. Even the declaration itself is problematic.

Nothing new, Japanese Government putting large corporations’ interests in front of its people’s.

80% against holding the Olympic Games this year is not enough apparently.

Considering this, is Japan really a democracy?

24 ( +25 / -1 )

We are putting our utmost efforts to prepare coronavirus countermeasures so (the public) can understand that the Tokyo Games can be held," 

The point is that the public do NOT want the olympics to be held.

20 ( +21 / -1 )

Would have been so easy to host if only the government had vaccinated the numbers like the UK and the US. As they haven't they should cancel and resign to take some responsibility for this mess.

19 ( +19 / -0 )

Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike said the roughly two-week period will be crucial in containing the spread of the virus ahead of the Olympics.

Really?!?

No, it won't. It is already out of control. Good luck trying to stop this runaway locomotive.

Suga declared the emergency, entailing stricter anti-virus measures such as prohibiting restaurants and bars from serving alcohol

No alcohol? Well, it looks like person to person transmission of the virus will end. What the…?

18 ( +18 / -0 )

If you look at another JT article, the Canadian Olympian and current IOC member and doctor to be Hayley  Wickenheiser has said that it is up to medical professionals not politicians or corporate sponsors to make the call. If you remember last year, she also said it was a bad idea to go and Canada soon pulled out. I'm waiting for something similar to happen here. Either Canada, Australia, New Zealand or somebody to say they are not going and then the whole house of cards will come tumbling down and there is not a thing our strawberry farmer in chief can do about it!

17 ( +17 / -0 )

Seems like we keep reading this same headline each week.

16 ( +16 / -0 )

Not being considered is probably the worst phrase you can use in a contingency. Everything should be on the table to save lives and to prevent the collapse of the medical system. Hashimoto is an idiot.

16 ( +16 / -0 )

You have to beat the virus! Not by getting a vacanation, but by having the Olympics! Everyone Knows that...

15 ( +15 / -0 )

Oh, the torch relay will be coming through my little hamlet in the middle of June and I have been asked to be part of the town staff in helping out with the day's festivities.

As I believe these games and everything associated with them should be cancelled, I think I will call in sick that day. I am feeling a bit under the weather…cough, cough.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Hashimoto is probably reading a script written by Mori.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

"We are putting our utmost efforts to prepare coronavirus countermeasures so (the public) can understand that the Tokyo Games can be held," Seiko Hashimoto said at a press conference

Can't you get it through your thick heads that the public don't, and won't ever, understand why the event is not being cancelled.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

Battered by successive waves of Covid variants the people stranded on the islands of Japan now find themselves up the creek without a vaccine while the Japanese Olympians above the clouds are now clearly winging it on prayers, reduced to repeating their stale mantra, "don't mention the virus, the show must go on!" Where is our Doctor Fauci? Help!

12 ( +12 / -0 )

@George Townes

Why do want call in sick?

You dont need to find an excuse.

Tell them the truth, tell them you will not join because you are scared of Corona.

To find an excuse doesnt help anyone.

12 ( +16 / -4 )

Repeating "safe and secure" does not make it so.

Nobody will cancel because big money is on the line, pure and simple. It's not about tradition. It's not about entertainment. It's not about triumph over covid. Well... it might be about triumph over covid because the marketing writes itself.

Human greed is a hell of a thing.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Tokyo Olympic head says cancelation not being considered

Until it's considered.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

@Seiko Hashimoto

''The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Friday that canceling the Games set to open in three months is not being considered.'

Yeah, O.K. we get it already. We don't care. You can shut up about it.

Tax thieves and idiots. That's all you and your group of cronies represent to us.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Friday that canceling the Games set to open in three months is not being considered

Nonsense. Of course it's being considered.

For events of this size and nature all possible situations and outcomes will be thoroughly considered - that goes for the effect and response to a natural disaster before or during the event, to a terrorist event, to a worsening of the Covid situation.

If any of these things haven't been thoroughly thought through then all those in charge should be fired immediately for incompetence and possibly endangering the lives of tens of thousands of people.

So as a new SoE has just been enacted in Tokyo and some surrounding prefectures, I can confidently state that the option of cancelling the games is currently being 'monitored' very closely - and therefore considered.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

I'm sure they said this last year too. And then look what happened.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

I don't often agree with many of the commentators here, and when I post my own comment, I typically get a lot of thumbs-down, so I am pleased to be "on the side" of most in this case. Even though I am old and not in the best of health, I don't worry very much about COVID on a personal level, but a couple of days ago I went into Tokyo for the first time in about a year and found it all rather sobering...The last thing the capital or the nation needs at this moment is all the complications from the Olympic Games. How stubborn, stupid, and greedy can these people be?

10 ( +10 / -0 )

I wonder what Hashimoto and the top leaders of Japan's political caste will say to the friends and family members of people in Japan who die because the Olympics becomes a super-spreader event? It seems that many members of Japan's elite think stubbornness is a virtue. When lives are at stake, it definitely isn't!

9 ( +9 / -0 )

And I thought that a modern democracy is made by a government that listen to the will of it’s people,obviously this country doesn’t have a real one.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

as noted in an earlier post, Meeja people are already here in preparation.... then, the overall Olympic thing covers some 8 weeks (inc. the paras).... plus wind up and wind down. and during, there will be masses of people moving around: Tōkyō, Chiba, Sapporo, Shizuoka-ken, and I think, some other spots.... seems foolish, careless (uncaring), and just plain dangerous to me.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

This is just bold bluff, what else can they say.

That said it is insanity to put a sporting event ahead of everyone's safety. The majority of the athletes will be panting in close proximity to each other.

'' Hashimoto said several test events will be held during the state of emergency to review operations, but the organizing committee may scale down some of them in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.''

This says it all. If they need to scale down these events then they also need to scale down the Olympics - to nothing

8 ( +8 / -0 )

In an attempt to make sure that effective steps against the virus will be taken during the games, the committee has decided to set up a panel of health experts, with its first meeting to be held next Friday

I find this so hard o believe. We are only a few months out, yet the virus is over a year old now. I'd like to be a fly on the wall in that first meeting. Just to see how unproductive it will be.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

First things first — vaccinate your citizens as quickly as possible. Instead of “trying” to make the games safe, actually make them safe by pouring all national resources into a rapid vaccination campaign. The Olympics is diverting precious time, energy and money away from the most critical problem in the world for a game few people want.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Not even one of them said that the most effective measure is vaccination. Instead they're calling for 'expert panel' meetings and having restaurants/bars stop serving alcohol. It's funny how media aren't even bringing up the question. Then again, it's common that the media are muzzled in Japan or are afraid to challenge for fear of Japan losing face. Of course if it involves 'Gaijin' or in particular other Asian nations, then fire away!!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Tokyo Olympic head says cancelation not being considered

All said while Tokyo Cops Stroll through down town city streets with batons drawn intimidating local people on Friday evenings....................one has to ask them selves W T F is going on in the minds of the idiots running this place.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Friday (23 April 2021) that canceling the Games set to open in three months is not being considered, even as the Japanese capital struggles with a resurgence of coronavirus infections.

A lot can happen in three months. If there's another surge of cases worldwide and in Japan weeks or even days before the big event, I'm curious how will they retract their claims. While this is already obvious to say, if the Olympics becomes a Giga-level spreader event, I can't imagine how will the government manage to save face should that happen. Let's hope the organizers have luck on their side and Nostradamus as their consultant.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

They really gonna keep this charade going to the end huh?

This should be a spectacular train wreck to watch as the Olympic dates approach. I say lets indulge these morons and see what they do with all of this. Should be entertaining till the end for sure.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

OK we know local variants of Covid are out, but as more and more new ones and more viral, stronger, etc.. develop in other countries, why take the chance on bringing in tens of thousands of people that could bring newer variants.

These could be non Japanese or Japanese returning.

People keep going on about how well New Zealand has done, but they forget that New Zealand had a near total ban on leaving or returning.

Within a few days Canada bwent from one case of the Indian variant in on province to 6 provinces and dozens of cases growing very quickly daily.

Canada was already in bad shape and had it had a ban on leaving or entering at least it would not now be dealing with an even stronger covid variant.

I am not saying ban foreigners I am saying stop all from entering, if some Japanese person did return before to bad so sad, you chose to stay out then wait and return when things are cleared up.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I don’t think she has any power or whatsoever to decide on this matter. In theory, maybe yes but in reality there are only 3 people who can cancel the Olympics: IOCs Bach, Suga and Koike.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

.. And as @blackflag says, only those 3 people ALL in agreement can actually cancel.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"We are putting our utmost efforts to prepare coronavirus countermeasures so (the public) can understand that the Tokyo Games can be held," Seiko Hashimoto said 

Bahahahahahahaha!!!! That is the most hilarious thing I've read today. "Utmost efforts"? You mean another toothless "lockdown", beyond sluggish vaccine rollouts, trains packed to the brim with commuters, and no enforced restrictions on traveling between cities and prefectures - these efforts? Yeah, try again.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

These dudes are beyond delusional. Down with the masked, fan-less Olympics!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

George TownesApr. 24 07:25 am JST

Oh, the torch relay will be coming through my little hamlet in the middle of June and I have been asked to be part of the town staff in helping out with the day's festivities.

As I believe these games and everything associated with them should be cancelled, I think I will call in sick that day. I am feeling a bit under the weather…cough, cough

I once called my work and told them I had eye trouble and could not come to work that day. The supervisor asked me what was wrong with my eye. I told him I could not see myself coming into work.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The only way how the Olympics will be canceled is if foreign countries start to pull out their athlets.

But nobody do that.

It is opposite!

Everywhere all over the world athlets are preparing and getting vaccined for the Olympics.

So I say 99% the Olympics will be held.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Either protest by not wearing masks and congregate at all the venues or protest by not turning on your tv, and don't buy anything with a logo for Olympics 2020

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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