Tokyo News: Expensive and Soulless Tokyo Olympics bars overseas fans
Kanako Mita and Noriko Watanabe
Modern Tokyo Times
Overseas sporting lovers have been banned from watching the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in Japan. Hence, the most expensive and soulless Olympics in history will take place later this year. Therefore, for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – and the government of Japan – the economic and prestige angles are the main criteria for holding the games this year.
The ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis continues with over 2.7 million deaths (the death figure is much higher). Meanwhile, new lockdowns have just been declared again in several European nations. At the same time, daily deaths are reaching news highs in several nations including Brazil. Despite this, the Olympics is still being talked up by political elites in Japan.
Hence, the announcement that overseas sporting lovers will be banned from entering Japan to watch the Olympics sumps up the IOC and government of Japan. In other words, finance and prestige are deemed to be more important because the majority in Japan don’t support the games being held because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Therefore, a soulless corporate Olympics – without the vibes of internationalism – awaits the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics later this year.
Daily coronavirus infections continue in Tokyo and throughout Japan. Likewise, new variants appear to be gaining in strength in parts of the country. Thus, the exorbitant Olympics for non-international spectators during a pandemic seems illogical and commercially crude.
Reuters reports, “A stripped-down Games means the government will not get the tourism boom it had long counted on. Japan has grown increasingly reliant on foreign tourists, particularly from Asia, to bolster its weak domestic economy.”
Overall, the Olympics and Paralympics aren’t warranted because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2020-idUSKBN2BC04K
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