Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, April 2 (Reporter Wang Zijiang) The chairman of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee Hashimoto Seiko said on the 2nd that regarding the issue of whether the Olympic torch relay will be held in the Osaka area, the Olympic Organizing Committee is negotiating with the Osaka prefectural government. Make a decision as soon as possible.
Seiko Hashimoto made the above remarks at the press conference that day. She said: “We are consulting with the local government on the details of the torch relay in the Osaka region because the Japanese government has designated Osaka Prefecture to adopt a stronger epidemic prevention policy. , We need to make a decision on the torch relay issue in compliance with the law."
However, Seiko Hashimoto would not disclose whether the torch relay in the Osaka area will be cancelled, but insisted: "Consultations are ongoing and we will make a decision as soon as possible."
Osaka Prefecture has recently become the most severely affected area in Japan. The number of confirmed cases in the previous day reached 616, ranking first in the country.
Both the Governor of Osaka Prefecture Yoshimura Yoshifumi and the Mayor of Osaka City Matsui Ichiro called for the cancellation of the torch relay held in the area on April 13 and 14.
Yoshimura once again expressed his determination to cancel the torch relay that day. He told reporters: “We cannot let the Olympic torch relay be held on public roads in downtown Osaka.” He revealed that he would hold consultations with the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee in the evening of the same day. Said that he hoped to replace the torch relay in other ways.
Seiko Hashimoto was positive about the torch relay that began on March 25. She said: "In the past week, the area where the torch relay passed has not encountered major problems."
Regarding the FINA’s urgent announcement of the cancellation of the Olympic diving test, Seiko Hashimoto said that the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee did receive an email from FINA the night before, but FINA did not make it clear that it would cancel the competition.
The diving competition was originally planned to be held in Tokyo from April 18th to 23rd. It is not only an Olympic test event, but also a diving World Cup and Olympic qualifying event.
The outside world also expressed doubts about whether other test competitions, especially the other four competitions participated by overseas athletes, could be held.
Seiko Hashimoto said: "The test matches that the international individual sports organizations are responsible for should be resolved by them and the Japan Individual Sports Association. The specific situation is not known to the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee."
She also talked about the issue of the director team for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Last month, the chief director and creative director of the opening and closing ceremonies Hiroshi Sasaki resigned because of insults to women. His position remained vacant. Hashimoto said that the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee did not A new chief director will be appointed.
Because the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics has moved from the "creative stage" to the "production stage", there will now be an entire team responsible for programming and music production. As for the list of specific persons in charge, it will be announced at an appropriate time.
The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee spokesperson Masatsu Takatani who also attended the press conference also explained the issue of refunds for overseas audiences.
He said that the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee has always stipulated that overseas audiences who purchase Olympic and Paralympic tickets through ticketing agents will be charged a 20% handling fee when refunding their tickets. At the same time, overseas audiences who have purchased tickets must refund their tickets through the original ticketing agent. .