John Coates, who heads the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) coordination for the Tokyo Games, says the Olympics will be inaugurated as planned on July 23 next year.

- It will take place with or without covid, he says to the news agency AFP.

Last week, a working group consisting of people from Japan and the IOC met for the first time, whose task is to review issues such as border controls and, in cases, audiences should be allowed in the arenas.

- Their job now is to review all the different measures that will need to be taken for the games to take place, says Coates.

The Tokyo Olympics theme was intended to be the "Reconstruction Games", referring to the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan in 2011.

- Now they will be the games that overcame covid, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Japanese skeptical

But many Japanese are skeptical that the games will be completed.

Only one in four wants the competitions to be carried out and a third wants them to be canceled altogether, an opinion poll showed in July.

Doubts have been raised from several quarters as to the suitability of proceeding with the Olympics.

Japanese infection control experts have considered that there is a great risk of increased spread of infection during the Games, and Japanese vaccine researcher Yoshiharu Matsuura warned in mid-August that the Games will only be implemented if an effective vaccine has been available by then.

- In Japan, the government attaches great importance to vaccine development and drugs against the virus due to the Olympics.

They want to hold the Olympic Games next year and they say that it can only happen if there is a vaccine, Yoshiharu Matsuura told Sky News then.

Moved forward one year

Japanese authorities, as well as the Japanese Olympic Committee and the IOC, have said that a further relocation of the Olympics is not appropriate.

The summer games in Tokyo were originally scheduled to take place between July 24 and August 9 this year, but due to the pandemic, it was decided in March that the games would be moved forward by one year.

Historically, the Olympics have only been canceled during the two world wars.