Over half of Japanese firms believe the Tokyo Olympic Games should be canceled or postponed, a survey by think tank Tokyo Shoko Research showed on Monday, casting further doubt over the fate of the troubled Games.
Japan is struggling to contain the coronavirus and lags behind western countries in rolling out vaccines, even as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga vowed to get conditions in place to host the once-postponed Summer Olympics from July 23.
The survey, conducted online on February 1-8, showed 56 per cent of the companies polled feel Japan should cancel or postpone the Games, up from 53.6 per cent in the previous survey in August. Only 7.7 per cent of the firms surveyed said the Games should proceed in full form as scheduled this year, down from 22.5 per cent in the previous survey.
Nearly 20 per cent said the Games should be held with a limited number of spectators, while another 17 per cent said it should proceed with no spectators, the survey showed. Over 70 per cent firms said cancelling or postponing the Games will barely have any impact on their earnings.
The survey, which covered over 11,000 firms, was conducted before Friday’s resignation of Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori over sexist remarks that left the Olympics searching for a chief five months from the opening ceremony.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympic organisers could choose their new president as early as this week, a report said on Monday, after former chief Yoshiro Mori resigned over sexist remarks that provoked a global outcry.
Local organisers need to ‘urgently’ pick a new president with just five months left to prepare for the Games amid the COVID-19 pandemic and are setting up a selection committee made up of an equal number of men and women, the group’s chief executive Toshiro Muto said last week.
The selection committee will hold its first meeting at the start of this week, Nippon TV reported, citing unidentified sources. Committee members will submit names of candidates in the days after and could select the new president as soon as this week, the report said.
However, the process could carry over into next week if there is a large number of candidates, Nippon TV said. Among those being considered to succeed Mori are Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto, a pioneering female lawmaker and seven-time Olympian who is one of only two women in Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s cabinet, media have said.
Hashimoto, born just days before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, said on Friday she had not been asked to replace Mori.
Others who have been floated to succeed Mori include Mikako Kotani, a two-time Olympian in synchronised swimming, now known as artistic swimming, who serves on the Japanese Olympic Committee, and Upper House lawmaker Tamayo Marukawa, a previous Olympics Minister.
Media said another possible candidate was Daichi Suzuki, a former Olympic gold medallist backstroke swimmer who has served as commissioner of the Japan Sport Agency, an organisation aiming to promote sport nationwide.
Another person being considered for the role was Koji Murofushi, a former Olympic gold medallist hammer thrower who has served as the agency’s commissioner since October after succeeding Suzuki.
Mori’s handpicked successor, former Japan Football Association president Saburo Kawabuchi, 84, on Friday declined the job after publicly accepting it earlier, news reports said. The Summer Olympics, which were postponed last year due to the pandemic, are scheduled to open July 23.
