Tokyo Olympics to costs tens of billions of dollars: Privileged only!
Kanako Mita and Sawako Utsumi
Modern Tokyo Times
The Tokyo Olympics typify the shallowness of humanity. Officially, over 4 million deaths from the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19). Yet, in India alone, the number of excess deaths is 4 million. However, despite the enormous loss of life internationally from coronavirus – and horrendous economic convulsions for billions of people – tens of billions are being spent on the Tokyo Olympics.
Taxpayers in Japan have little control over how their taxes are spent. Of course, this applies to other nations. Despite this, it is their money that is being utilized by the government of Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by stealth. In return, the people of Japan outside of privileged elites are banned from visiting sporting venues. Equally depressing, Tokyo is once more under a State of Emergency concerning the high number of daily coronavirus infections in the capital city.
Daily cases of new coronavirus infections continue that are directly related to the Tokyo Olympics. Thus a taekwondo competitor from Chile just withdrew from the games after testing positive. Hence, several teams are blighted by coronavirus problems, some members of the IOC entourage, and other coronavirus infections concerning different Olympic angles. Therefore, with new coronavirus variants spreading internationally – notably the Delta variant (first noticed in India) – it isn’t surprising that the majority of people in Japan don’t want the Olympics to take place under the prevailing conditions.
Bloomberg reports, “Tokyo’s Olympic organizers reported 71 cases of Covid-19 linked to the event, just days before the opening ceremony is set to kick off the delayed games.”
The first Olympic event took place between Australia and Japan in Fukushima. Yet this softball game sums up the Olympics. Instead of spectators, it was security personnel, the athletes, severely restricted ballpark, cordoned off roads surrounding the match, and media personnel. Therefore, little joy and no connection – and more fear that the coronavirus will spread.
Nobuyuki Saito, the Secretary-General of a nonprofit company in the prefecture of Fukushima, lamented, “The bid for the games was made under the flag of ‘Reconstruction Olympics,’ but now it is hard to see the theme as the coronavirus overshadows everything.”
Lee Jay Walker says, “Since the coronavirus crisis emerged in Japan it is noticeable that female suicide is up. Yet while the money is forthcoming in the billions of dollars for the Olympics, the most marginalized in Japan are struggling from the coronavirus economic convulsions. This notably concerns temporary contract workers, the low-paid, single-parent families, and women who have fewer options in Japan because of sexual working discrimination. Similarly, older workers have been forced out of companies – or been offered reduced yearly salaries after pension age, in the knowledge that the economy in certain sectors is struggling. Therefore, recent State of Emergencies and measures seem aimed at preserving the Olympics at all costs, while negating responsibility towards people who are struggling.”
Modern Tokyo Times, recently said “Legal ambiguities between the central government of Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, sponsors, and the IOC shouldn’t override the implications of the coronavirus pandemic concerning health and economics. Hence, for Suga, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, and the IOC not to have contemplated the postponement – or cancellation – of the Olympics during a more severe period of the coronavirus pandemic is disturbing.”
Overall, the Tokyo Olympics will be remembered for all the wrong reasons once the final costs – economic, health, and mental health problems – are all added up. Thus, with no foreign spectators and domestic spectators being allowed outside of privileged elites, the Olympics highlight that tens of billions of dollars can be found for a set amount of gold medals, despite millions of international coronavirus deaths and the horrendous economic convulsions that persist.
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