World
Japanese CEO calls Olympics "suicide mission" for Japan
Tokyo: The CEO of one of Japan's top companies said on Friday that holding the Olympics in the country during summer would be equivalent to a "suicide mission".
Hiroshi Miktani, the CEO of Rakuten, the largest e-commerce website in Japan, said in a media interview that he had been trying to convince the government to cancel the Olympics which are scheduled to begin on July 23. Other Japanese executives have also voiced their concerns over the Olympics and the on-going coronavirus pandemic. Among them is CEO Soft Bank, Masayoshi Son. Toyota's COO Jun Nagata also said that his company, one of the sponsors of the Olympics, was concerned.
Calling an international event of this scale "dangerous", Mikitani said it's not time to celebrate yet.
With Covid-19 cases rising, hundreds of thousands of people have signed an online petition calling for the Olympics to be canceled, and this week Japan's top executives have also voiced their concerns.