Japanese Prefer to Cancel or Postpone Summer Tokyo Olympics

More and more Japanese believe that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games should not be held as scheduled, reflects a survey by the local agency Kyodo published on Sunday, in which 80 percent of those polled would choose to cancel or postpone them again.

The telephone survey conducted this weekend by the aforementioned Japanese news agency was carried out when Japan is experiencing an increase in COVID-19 infections that is putting increasing pressure on its health system and is the reason why the country has toughened its immigration measures.

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A similar survey conducted last December by Japan's state-run NHK showed that 32 percent called for the cancellation of the games and 31 percent said they should be postponed again.

This means that in the last four weeks, with the worsening situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, 48 percent more people believe that the games should be canceled or postponed again. 

In that context, 35.3 percent of respondents would prefer to cancel the Olympic event, scheduled to begin on July 23, while another 44.8 percent would choose to postpone it again.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which have kept their official name, were supposed to be held in the summer of last year, but were postponed to 2021 because of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic since the spring of 2020.

In the survey published this Sunday, participants were also asked about the Government's management of the epidemic.

68.3 percent said they were dissatisfied with the measures taken, while 24.9 percent felt that the authorities had addressed the management of the pandemic correctly.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Japan increased by 7,109 to 281,992 as of Saturday evening, and 44 new deaths were announced, which means that organizers are in a race against time to bring the epidemic under control.