The Japanese government has decided this week that the once delayed 2020 Olympics that are set to start in late July 2021 will be without overseas spectators.
It has been unclear whether the Olympics will go forward due to the Japanese public opinion being negative against holding them at all.
Here’s an excerpt from the Japan Times:
The Japanese government has decided to exclude overseas spectators from attending this summer’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, officials with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.
The government and the Japanese organizing committee of the Summer Games are expected to hold a remote meeting with the International Olympic Committee and two other bodies possibly next week to make a formal decision on the issue of overseas visitors.
The government has concluded that welcoming fans from abroad is not possible given concerns among the Japanese public over the coronavirus and the fact that more contagious variants have been detected in many countries, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Conclusion
I guess that this means that Japan is closed to foreign visitors until sometime in 2022.
The country has been slow at starting vaccinating its citizens, and there is some general hesitance towards vaccinations in Japan.
We purchased tickets to the Olympics just in case that foreign spectators would be allowed in, but that, unfortunately, won’t be the case.
I guess that there is a chance that the Olympics will be canceled altogether if a very virulent strain of Covid-19 surfaces between now and July.
I said this from last year. The best course of action if they want to hold the Olympics is to simply have the athletes there. Because the teams are already normally sequestered in a designated Olympic ‘housing village’, it makes it easier to contain any cases.
Indeed, the international Olympic committee should post cameras in every room to inhibit cross pollination.
Who wants to be in Japan in summer anyway? The heat and humidity are just terrible. Would of course have used the olympics as an excuse to be allowed in and experience other parts of Japan.
Olympics are totally boring.
Are you a troll? Your name..🤔
You said
“The country has been slow at starting vaccinating its citizens, and there is some general hesitance towards vaccinations in Japan”
as if vaccinations (they aren’t, they are therapeutics) will somehow stop the spread and permit gatherings.
Nope, St Fauci has made that abundantly clear, as have the manufacturers themselves. The therapeutics may reduce symptoms, that’s it. No protection against infection and no reduction in contagion.
Regarding who will come, if held (I still doubt it), I am sure the elite (Fauci, Gates, etc) will arrive, be welcomed and hailed as heroes. The family members, and relatives of the teams and their staffs will also attend in my opinion. Maybe the Japanese have already planned to have Fauci, Gates, etc march in the opening day parade!!? Good thing defensive weapons are illegal in Japan! Maybe they can by some left over fake fireworks from China?
ps, maybe the Japanese have read the FDA list of adverse reactions? I have. Caveat Emptor.
buy, not by.
Sorry. Spellcheck is like a virus
Israel has shown that vaccinations stop the spread. Pretty impressively, too. Don’t believe me, check The Google.
Sorry to say, but it is not impressive at all. The numbers are higher then half a year ago. And don’t drop. See for yourself here. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/ Please include a reliable source when you make factual statements.
Sorry to say, but it is not impressive at all. The numbers are higher then half a year ago. And don’t drop. See for yourself here. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/ Please include a reliable source when you make factual statements.
Sorry to say, but it is not impressive at all. The numbers are higher then half a year ago. And don’t drop. See for yourself here. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/ Please include a reliable source when you make factual statements.
Sorry to say, but that’s just not true. Numbers of infections are much higher then half a year ago. Please include a reliable source when making factual statements, like data of Worldometers. This kind of statements (‘check the Google’) don’t help anybody.
Your posts are full of complete nonsense.
Micke – been telling KillB that for ages but his capricious reactions are equally nonsensical
Darwin thanks you Bill…
It’s really idiotic how the government selfishly ignores the public’s concern about postponing or cancelling the olympics but use the public’s concern to ban foreign spectators.
The main concern from the public was the influx of visitors who would come to watch. If the ban is true, that would alleviate the problem.
Quite the home team advantage.
As this decision is no surprise, it must still be said that the Japanese Government are extremely unprogressive. While the rest of the world is discussing vaccine passports the Japanese Government is living in a parallell universe disconnected from reality. If people coming from overseas are vaccinated and thus are very unlikely to transmit the virus as early research from Israel and Great Britain has shown, it actually makes them less of a threat than Japanese citizens which apparently have to wait for a long time until immunized.
The Olympics is about unite people together, not divide them as will now be the case.
The whole thing should just get cancelled.
Just cancel the Olympics. Given the lockdowns in most nations, it is not like the athletes are at their best. I’m sure there are many countries where their training has been severely impacted.
It is understandable and equally disappointing for those of us planning to attend.
However a decision has finally been made and it is the right one for the Japanese people while making very little difference to the games’ sponsors and media, for obvious reasons.
There has been no definitive decision regarding spectators. This posting is clickbait.
Maybe not official, but it is pretty obvious that the information is accurate and that overseas spectators will be banned.
I live in Japan. It’s all but certain and has been in the local news for weeks. Not remotely clickbait.
This is fake news (for now anyway). The Japanese Govt and the OCOG is still debating the subject. A final decison is not expected much before the end of the month.
That said, it is likely to happen. The current protocol for teams attending the games will keep them pretty well isolated from the general population. On arrival they have to go to the Olympic Village and they are then only allowed to go to training and competition venues using approved transport. No sightseeing, no restaurants, no shopping. In addition regular testing will be undertaken in the village. It would be impossible to do that with other overseas visitors.
“The government and the Japanese organizing committee of the Summer Games are expected to hold a remote meeting with the International Olympic Committee and two other bodies possibly next week to make a formal decision on the issue of overseas visitors.”
A bit of clickbait? There has been no official decision as of yet. When it happens then post about it.
“I guess that this means that Japan is closed to foreign visitors until sometime in 2022.”
Where are you getting that information or coming to that conclusion? Why not late 2021 (e.g. Aug/Sept-Dec)?
Agree with John. Vaccination for Japanese citizen is starting but very slow. Medical personnels, old guys, people who have underlying diseases are prior, then our turn. I didn’t think entire vaccination processes complete until the end of this year. Ministry of health plans till February next year. On the other hand, as economical reason, especially for tourism industry, we need to reopen for foreign visitor ASAP.
The slow in vaccination is not without good reason though, so far the Pfizer vaccine somehow has a 20 times higher rate causing severe complications in Japan compared to US. It would be foolish and irresponsible to push through the vaccination knowing this.
News flash for you- everyone of the people suffered the anaphylactic shock have recovered.
Aroind a week ago, Mainich, a major paper, leaked the rumor, and Asahi and Nikkei followed 2days ago but not unveiled officially at this moment. Japanese government seems to announce that before starting torch relay on March 25th as many reports.
They need to cancel the Olympics and the Dubai Expo. What’s the use in having a worldwide event when the world population can’t attend.
This has not been announced by Japanese Government and is not on any news channel.
Reuters is saying today that the decision is still yet to be made. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2020-hashimoto-idUSKBN2B31TL
Just 1 hour ago, it officially announced unfortunately. No foreign visitors cannot attend Tokyo Olympic games.