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TOKYO: Foreign fans will not be able to participate in the Tokyo Olympics postponed by this year’s pandemic due to current concerns about the coronavirus, organizers announced on Saturday (March 20).
“To give clarity to ticket holders living abroad and to allow them to adjust their travel plans at this stage, the parties on the Japanese side have concluded that they will not be able to enter Japan at the time of the Olympics and Paralympics, “the Tokyo 2020 organizing body said in a statement.
READ: The Japanese mostly oppose the Tokyo Olympics this summer: Poll
The International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee “fully respect and accept this conclusion,” the statement added.
TICKET REFUND
About 600,000 tickets for the Games and another 300,000 for the Paralympic Games will be reimbursed, said the executive director of the organizing committee.
At a press conference on Saturday, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said the organizing committee would not announce how much the refunds would cost.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been delayed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While overseas spectators will now be banned, organizing committee chair Seiko Hashimoto said in February that the Games should still have fans in the stands.
While the outbreak has chilled public opinion about the event, both the organizers and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga have vowed to go ahead with the Games.
The decision on international spectators “will ensure a safe and secure Games for all participants and the Japanese public,” Tokyo 2020 organizers said in a statement following five-way talks that included the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and the governor of Tokyo. .
“People who are involved in the Olympics in some way may be allowed to enter the country, while regular visitors will not be able to do so,” said Muto of Tokyo 2020.
He said that the costs of hotel cancellations would not be covered. Organizers may also consider reducing the number of staff members who will participate in the Games.
The Games are scheduled from July 23 to August 8 and the Paralympics from August 24 to September 5.
Media polls have shown that the majority of the Japanese public is wary of allowing international spectators to enter the Games as the country faces the end of a third wave of the pandemic.
DISCOVERED GAMES
A small Games means that the government will not get the tourism boom it had long expected. Japan has become increasingly dependent on foreign tourists, especially from Asia, to bolster its weak domestic economy.
As in other countries, tourism has collapsed with the pandemic and its hotels and restaurants have been hit hard.
Saturday’s decision did not cover local viewers. Muto said organizers will decide next month on spectator caps at venues.
“It is very regrettable,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said of the decision on international viewers, speaking to reporters after the meeting.
But he added that the conclusion was “inescapable” given that the top priority for a successful Games would be the health of the athletes and the Japanese public.
The Kyodo news service previously reported that organizers were inclined to ban foreign volunteers from helping at the Games.
Sources told Reuters earlier this month that the Japanese government had concluded that it will not be able to allow viewers from abroad.
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