Will Tokyo be hosting meaningless Games next month? That is the belief of at least one member of the Japan Olympic Committee, which otherwise shout take pride of playing host to the 32nd Olympiad.
JOC member Kaori Yamaguchi believes that the Tokyo 2020 Games hhave “lost meaning”. However, she also asserted that it would not be possible to cancel or postpone the Games, which had already been deferred once due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
‘GAMES HAVE LOST MEANING’
Yamaguchi in her opinion write up, published by Kyodo News, has questioned that “what will these Olympics be for and for whom? The Games have already lost meaning and are being held just for the sake of them”.
The article describes “anxiety and distrust” between the public and the government over the event.
“We have been cornered into a situation where we cannot even stop now. We are damned if we do, and damned if we do not,” added Yamaguchi, a bronze medallist judoka from the 1988 Seoul Games0.
IOC TOO TAKEN FOR TASK
Yamaguchi also slammed the IOC for asserting that the Games would be held in any case. “The IOC also seems to think that public opinion in Japan is not important,” she wrote.
A majority of people, Olympic sponsors, doctors bodies and intellectuals in Japan have been opposing the Games. Nearly 80 per cent respondents in various surveys have opined to either call off or defer the Games due to the spike in the Covid-19 cases.
