Tokyo Olympics Committee Chief Says putting off games is “impossible” despite public opinion to cancel games again

The chief of Tokyo’s Olympic organizing committee said Tuesday it would be “absolutely impossible” to postpone the Summer Games again due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who serves as president on the committee, said putting off the Games again would be impossible because many of the organizing officials were already on loan from other organizations in the local government.

Mori’s comments come less than one week after Japan recorded its highest number of new cases in a day — more than 7,800 on Friday. The capital city of Tokyo is currently under a state of emergency through Feb. 8. Globally, coronavirus cases are among an all-time high, with more than 609,000 new cases reported and nearly 10,000 deaths reported Monday.

A Kyodo News survey released Sunday showed that about 80% of people in Japan support postponing or canceling the Summer Games, which were postponed from 2020. The events are scheduled to begin July 23 and will include about 15,000 athletes and tens of thousands more coaches, judges and other workers.