Tokyo Olympics in 2021 will be beacon of hope, says IOC

Now, we will see if they were holding back on testing because of the summer games or not. I expect to see a bump in the reported cases of the virus.

I just hope to God that the world will be ready by summer 2021.

Difficult but wise decision.

@saulojpn

Absolutely no reason to increase testing. In fact, if I were the government, I would tighten testing criteria up. No need to test. The crisis is over in Japan. It peaked with the Diamond Princess. It's time to get the whole of Japan back to work and school and go get the populace working on preparing for Tokyo 2020 in 2021 since up to 600,000 foreigners are planning to come. The preparation and logistics needed for this is going to require a national effort to make everything perfect.

It's a real shame but it had to be done.

The IOC has a way of putting a lot of financial strain on the hosting country. With the virus still lurking around, the financial cost would have hurt Japan if they tried to continue with the games this year.

Quite right: "With the virus still lurking around, the financial cost would have hurt Japan if they tried to continue with the games this year." I must add the human cost would have been greater if the 2020 Olympics were held. Putting off the Olympics was the right thing to do. Hoping we will all be around to see the virus-free Olympics in 2021.

The Olympics is not life and death....COVID-19 is.

The focus should be to get the country back to normal, so they can safely host the games.

Glad the IOC & JOC were FORCED to do the right thing!!!

Now the re-scheduling is going to be brutally difficult, the costs, claims & picking time frames for the new games..... will it be next spring or will the idiots in charge stick with July-August.....

Expect some serious bumps along the way trying to re-do this!

Now the olympics have been canceled, it has been reported that Japanese comedian Shimura ken has been very sick with the virus. He is now recovering (happy for him) But he is the first high profile case I have heard of in Japan, maybe I have missed others. But the timing seems strange that they report it only after the Olympics have been postponed. I wonder if over the next week more cases of famous people come to light.

Might just be coincidence too.

As for the Olympics being postponed seems like everyone except the IOC and the Japanese Gov. knew it would happen. What a waste of time and effort, that could (should ) have gone into planning / taking action against the virus.

I just hope to God that the world will be ready by summer 2021.

I just hope they don't reschedule them for July-August. Either a couple of months before or a couple of months after.

@tora, are you a doctor with inside access to govt data? We need transparency here.

Also in Tokyo we have had the two largest increases in the last two days so it clearly has Ed ‘peaked’ as you wrongly say. Please stick to the facts here

Now hopefully the hotel will refund my booking or at least change the date...

Japan today can change the Header to: 2021 Tokyo Olympics

People who think this has peaked were sitting under the sakura and in crowded trains without a mask.

JT time to change the Tab at the top of page to 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

To believe the virus has already peaked in Japan is foolhardy. And even if it has, it just takes one tourist from Europe to kick it off again.

They are insisting on still calling it Tokyo 2020 for some reason, guess so they don’t have to change the merchandise. Lol

Tokyo Olympics in 2021 will be beacon of hope, says IOC

Make it non-profit for the IOC, donate everything to the global fight against coronavirus, and I will agree with them.

As it is, it is the medical community, risking their own health to fight this thing, who are the beacon of hope.

This is trivial but if you have 2021, it’ll be very special in terms of collectors’ items. This is rare in the history of the Olympics.

I predict the games "Won't" be in 2021 and covid 19 is unfortunately going to explode over the next couple of weeks!

Question, what about Fukushima...…. 3\11...….

Thrown under the bus once again I guess...…. par for the course

Now, we will see if they were holding back on testing because of the summer games or not. I expect to see a bump in the reported cases of the virus.

My thinking exactly. It will also be interesting to see if Abe now starts to show some real leadership by enforcing social distancing measures like the other countries that really want to get ahead of the virus. Any other (non)-actions are simply courting disaster.

runner3 I agree, I wanted to make the same point.

At last, humans is the matter and only main matter. Good deciosion I.O.C.

Luckily we know the exact date it will stop, that viruses can’t mutate and the world is flat so everyone gets it the same time preventing reinfection.

Luckily we know the exact date it will stop, that viruses can’t mutate and the world is flat so everyone gets it the same time preventing reinfection.

Seems premature to me but everyone was yelling decision decision decision! So what could they do?

Delaying the Games was the right decision. Hosting an event that celebrates human resilience and capability while thousands are sick or dying around the world would have made everyone associated with the event look cruel and selfish. No doubt this will cause a lot of problems in terms of logistics, but even so, human life must come ahead of any global event. All we can do at this stage is hope that the coronavirus situation comes under control much sooner than next year. Fingers crossed.

Here's hoping we are all in a better place next year. Keep listening to the experts, ignore the majority of politicians and quackery.

Absolutely no reason to increase testing. In fact, if I were the government, I would tighten testing criteria up. No need to test. 

Thanks but no thanks.

It's time to get the whole of Japan back to work and school and go get the populace working on preparing for Tokyo 2020 in 2021

Is this your professional advice?

Kobe White Bar OwnerToday 12:13 pm JST

JT time to change the Tab at the top of page to 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

3( +3 / -0 )

ModeratorToday 12:29 pm JST

The Tokyo Games will still be referred to as the 2020 Olympics.

Thanks Moderator, that makes perfect sense..

Finally some common sense.