A large majority of Japanese people want the Tokyo Olympics, postponed by a year because of the pandemic, not to take place next year, calling for a new postponement or cancellation, according to two recent polls.
Barely 23.9% of those polled between Friday and Sunday want the Games to go ahead next summer as planned, according to a survey by the Japanese Kyodo news agency published on Sunday night *.
Respondents divided between postponement or cancellation
In detail, 36.4% of them are in favor of a further postponement, while 33.7% believe that the event should be canceled altogether.
Most of those in favor of postponing or canceling say they do not believe that the coronavirus pandemic can be brought under control in time for the Games, whose opening ceremony is scheduled for July 23, 2021.
According to another poll carried out this weekend by the daily Asahi *, 33% of Japanese want the Games to take place next year, and 61% would prefer a postponement or cancellation.
A postponement decided in March against the Covid-19
The postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was announced in March as the Covid-19 spread around the world, unheard of since the cancellation of two editions during the Second World War.
These two national opinion polls confirm a trend expressed in a previous poll in June, according to which just over half of Tokyo residents were in favor of a further postponement or cancellation.
Olympic committee opposes further postponement
The Japanese organizers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have ruled out the possibility of a new change of dates. But the pandemic is accelerating in the world and the fear of a second wave is increasing in the archipelago, while the Japanese capital has observed in recent days record numbers of new daily cases of contamination.
IOC President Thomas Bach said last week that the Tokyo Games could be "a milestone for the whole world" as the world's first post-Covid gathering.
Thomas Bach added, however, that several scenarios were being studied in the face of this unprecedented health crisis, including the holding of the Games behind closed doors, while specifying that he was opposed to this solution.
* The Kyodo survey was conducted by telephone with 1,045 people. The Asahi newspaper interviewed 2,097 people by telephone on Saturday and Sunday.
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