Following a new surge of Covid-19 cases in Japan, calls are mounting to cancel the 2021 Tokyo Olympics entirely. There’s precedent for canceling the Games – but will the International Olympic Committee bow down to public pressure?
"Cancel the Tokyo Olympics to protect our lives," the petition headline reads.
In the midst of the surge of new Covid-19 cases in Japan, an online petition to cancel the Tokyo Olympics gained 50,000 signatures in the first 24 hours after it was launched.
The online petition gained thousands of signatures since being launched in Japan only days ago.
The petition, organized by Kenji Utsunomiya, a lawyer who has run several times for Tokyo governor, says that the Olympics cannot be held safely and that the games have drained financial resources away from other needs, such as Covid-19 vaccine rollouts.
This petition comes with Tokyo, Osaka and several other areas under a state of emergency with coronavirus infections rising — particularly new variants.
The state of emergency is to expire on May 11, but more and more speculations say it is likely to be extended.
The Tokyo Olympics is supposed to open in just under three months on July 23, 2021.
The games have already been delayed once from last year due to the pandemic.
The petition is addressed to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who has tentative plans to visit Japan later this month.
He is expected to meet the Olympic torch relay on May 17 in Hiroshima, and perhaps also travel to Tokyo where small anti-Olympic protests are being planned.
A senior Japanese ruling party official has admitted cancelling this year's Olympic Games remains an option.
Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, said Japan might have to "give up" on the Tokyo Olympics if rising coronavirus cases in the country made the event "impossible", Kyodo news agency reported.
With less than 100 days until the scheduled start, Covid-19 cases are on the rise across Japan. Anger about the Games is also on the rise in Japan, with “Cancelling Olympics” trending on Twitter there last week.
One recent poll found that more than seven in 10 people in Japan do not want the Olympics to happen this summer, with 39 percent preferring outright cancellation and another 33 percent favoring further postponement.
Olympic Games have been postponed or cancelled entirely in the past due to international events.
The 1916 Summer Olympics were cancelled due to World War I, while World War II prevented the 1940 and 1944 Summer and Winter Olympics from taking place.
If the situation in Tokyo remains the same, or tragically worsens, there will be a rebellion against these Games and that rebellion will have a huge effect in Paris and in Los Angeles, the sites of the next two Summer Games.
Tokyo’s willingness for the Games to go on, even if it means worsening the pandemic, raises the stakes dramatically for Olympic boosters and demonstrators alike. (NP)
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