Less than two months from the start of the Olympics Japan has extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas as the Covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of easing.
Tokyo City. Photo: 123rf
The state of emergency in the capital and eight other prefectures had been scheduled to end on 31 May but will carry on until 20 June, as strains on the medical system remain severe.
Japan has seen a record number of Covid-19 patients in critical condition in recent days, even as the number of new infections has slowed.
"In Osaka and Tokyo, the flow of people is starting to creep up, and there are concerns that infections will rise," said Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who heads the country's coronavirus countermeasures, at the start of a meeting with experts.
The experts later approved the government proposal and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga officially announced the extensions.
Worries about variants of the novel coronavirus and a slow vaccination drive have prompted urgent calls from doctors, some high-profile business executives, and hundreds of thousands of citizens to cancel the Olympic Games, due to start on 23 July.
Japanese officials, Olympics organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have said the Games would go ahead under strict virus-prevention measures.
IOC senior official John Coates, who oversees the preparations, said last week the Games were on whether or not the host city, Tokyo, was under a state of emergency at the time.
Many in Japan are expressing anger that the Olympics are scheduled to go ahead during the pandemic. Photo: 123rf
Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee President Seiko Hashimoto told a news conference she had received pledges from India - now battling a deadly second Covid-19 wave - and five other countries to vaccinate all their Olympic delegates as a measure against a new variant that has emerged in India.
IOC president Thomas Bach has said 80 percent of the 10,500 athletes expected in Japan would be vaccinated, and on Thursday urged Olympians to get their shots if they could. Delegates must also be tested before and after arrival.
Backlash against Olympics officials
Comments by IOC officials appearing to dismiss Japanese concerns have sparked outrage on social media.
The IOC's Bach told an International Athletes Forum on Thursday that Tokyo was the "best prepared Olympic city ever", and to "come with full confidence to Tokyo and get ready".
"I want to say 'shut up'," said one Twitter user. "Let's beat up on the IOC, which denigrates Japan, and halt these crazy Olympics."
Japan has recorded about 727,000 coronavirus infections and 12,597 deaths so far. About 6 percent of its population has been vaccinated, according to Reuters data, the lowest among the world's larger, rich countries.
Under the government's current plan, about 30 percent of the population would be vaccinated by the end of July, Nishimura said.
Osaka City health officials checking on prevention measures at restaurants in April. Photo: AFP
After meeting with Japanese officials on Thursday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen backed Tokyo's hosting of the Olympics. She said the European Union had authorised the export to Japan of more than 100 million vaccine doses, enough to inoculate about 40 percent of the population.
International spectators will not be allowed for the Games but some 90,000 people, including athletes and their delegations, will be coming. No decision has been made yet on domestic fans, and Tokyo 2020's Hashimoto said the situation regarding the state of emergency would need to be taken into account.
Polls show a majority of Japanese want the Games either cancelled or put off again. Originally they were scheduled to start almost to the day, a year earlier, but were postponed last year due to Covid-19.
That is a worry for the prime minister, whose support has slid over his handling of the response to Covid-19, and who faces a general election and a ruling party leadership race later this year.
But cancellation would carry its own political risk for the premier, some ruling party lawmakers said.
"The demerits would outweigh the merits," Liberal Democratic Party MP Hajime Funada told Reuters. "It would give the impression that Japan is in such dire straits it cannot hold the Games."
Japan's latest emergency steps, unlike stricter measures in many countries, have focused mainly on asking eateries that serve alcohol to close and those that don't to shut down by 8pm.
An extension of the states of emergency would mean the economy would likely contract in the current quarter, pushing it back into a recession, said Nomura Research Institute executive economist Takahide Kiuchi.
- Reuters
