Olympics 2020 to be held without spectators

“We reached an agreement on no spectators at venues in Tokyo,” Japan’s Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa said.

The ban on spectators is the latest setback to the disturbed Olympics, delayed by a year because of the pandemic and plagued by a series of setbacks, including massive budget overruns.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo’s fourth state of an emergency would begin on Monday – 11 days before the Games open – and end on 22 August, two days before the start of the Paralympics.

“Taking into consideration the effect of coronavirus variants and the need to prevent infections from spreading to the rest of the nation again, we need to strengthen our countermeasures,” Suga said. “Given the situation, we will issue a state of emergency for Tokyo.”

It was “regrettable” that the Games were going to be held in a limited format, Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto told a briefing, adding her apologies to those who had bought tickets.

The IOC and the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said last month that attendances would be capped at 50% of a venue’s capacity or a maximum of 10,000 people.

The Tokyo Games, scheduled from July 23 to August 8, are being held after a delay of one year as the novel coronavirus pandemic began spreading across the globe.

Tokyo and several other prefectures shifted last month from a state of emergency imposed in April that is set to expire on Sunday.

However, Japan is coping with the fourth wave of new infections and a slow vaccination campaign that has left just 15% of all Japanese citizens fully inoculated.

Tokyo reported 920 new infections on Wednesday. That compares with 714 last Wednesday and is the highest total since 1,010 were reported on 13 May. It announced 896 new cases on Thursday.