Tokyo: IOC President Thomas Bach has cancelled a trip to Japan because of surging cases of COVID-19 in the country, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Monday in a statement.Bach was to visit Hiroshima next Monday and meet the torch relay and then probably travel to Tokyo.
Organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said last week that the trip would be tough for Bach to make, which was interpreted in Japan as meaning it was cancelled.
The trip was made impossible because of a state of emergency in Tokyo and other parts of the country that has been extended until May 31. The state of emergency was to have ended on Tuesday.
The statement said Bach’s visit would be made ‘as soon as possible.’
The postponement is an embarrassment to the IOC and local organizers with the Olympics opening in just over 10 weeks. Organizers and the IOC have repeatedly said the Olympics will not be cancelled, and will be safe and secure.
Japan has attributed 11,000 deaths to COVID-19, better than many countries, but poor for Asia. Variants of the virus are spreading with reports of public health systems coming under pressure.
Public sentiment in Japan continues to run against holding the Olympics in the middle of a pandemic. Between 60-80% of Japanese people in polls have said the Olympics should be cancelled or postponed.
An online petition calling for the games to be cancelled gained 300,000 signatures in three days, although a small protest against the Olympics on Sunday in Tokyo drew only 100 people.
Naomi Osaka, who will represent Japan at the Olympics, said she has mixed feelings. Of course I would say I want the Olympics to happen, because I’m an athlete and that’s sort of what I’ve been waiting for my entire life, she said on Sunday.