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Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games won’t be cancelled – Organizing committee president

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Tokyo Olympics Organizing committee President Seiko Hashimoto has assured that the summer game would go ahead despite surging COVID-19 cases in Japan.

Hashimoto made this known in a news conference on Friday after the general secretary of the ruling LDP political party and the No. 2 in charge, Toshihiro Nikai, raised the possibility of a cancellation of the games on Thursday.

Speaking in an interview barely three months to the games, Nikai, said that “there would be no meaning to having the Olympics.”

Nikai tried to backtrack later, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga issued a statement Thursday saying there is “no change to the government position to do everything to achieve safe and secure Olympics.”

In reaction, Hashimoto said that “there are a variety of concerns but as the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee we are not thinking about cancelling the games.”

Hashimoto acknowledged Nikai’s concern and suggested it was probably shared by the Japanese public. Polls show as many as 80% in Japan oppose holding the Olympics during the pandemic.

“The fact that he (Nikai) is concerned is a point that we need to take seriously as Tokyo 2020,” she said. “His comment has reminded us of how tedious it was for us to feel confident or be fully prepared for delivering the games.”

AP reports that on Thursday, Japan’s second-largest metropolitan area of Osaka recorded 1,208 new cases. It was the third straight day that new cases surpassed 1,000. Tokyo hit 729, its highest total in more than two months.

Japan has attributed 9,500 death to COVID-19, good by world standards but poor by results in Asia. Vaccine rollout in Japan has also been very slow with fewer than 1% having received the vaccine.

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