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In Japan the calls for the cancellation of the Olympic Games in Tokyo are getting louder.

The Japanese lawyer and politician Kenji Utsunomiya called for the games to be canceled on Friday and presented Tokyo's governor Yuriko Koike with a petition with more than 350,000 signatures.

The protection of people's lives from the corona virus must have top priority and not the Olympic Games, it says.

Such games should be welcomed by everyone, "but that is not possible in the current circumstances".

Therefore, you ask those responsible to cancel it, said Utsunomiya after handing over his petition.

Surveys also show that a majority of the population is in favor of a cancellation or renewed postponement.

Japan's Olympic organizers and the IOC want to pull it off.

She is aware that many people are very concerned about the hosting of the games in less than three months because of the corona pandemic, said Japan's head of organization Seiko Hashimoto.

Take the situation "very seriously".

She will therefore do everything possible to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to protect the population and the participants from abroad, "so that we can overcome every single concern".

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Utsunomiya said that he had also sent his request to the IOC and that the online petition would continue until the games were canceled.

The petition, which was in Japanese, English, German and French, was quickly disseminated on social media and received more and more signatures at a rapid pace, including from people from more than 130 countries.

Only 1.24 percent of the population vaccinated

In Japan, 45 cities have now given up their planned host role for the Olympic Games and the Paralympics, as Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa confirmed on Friday. 32 of these municipalities had been informed by foreign delegations that they would not come. By the end of April, 528 communities had registered to welcome athletes from 184 countries and regions. The Japanese government called on the communities to continue the cultural exchange online, among other things.

In view of the further increase in the number of infections, Japan is meanwhile expanding the corona emergency again. In the prefectures of Hokkaido, Okyama and Hiroshima, stricter restrictions would also have to be implemented by May 31, the minister responsible, Yasutoshi Nishimura, announced on Friday. The government recently extended the emergency for Tokyo and extended it to six regions. The vaccination rate is particularly worrying. Only 1.24 percent of the population (in Germany 10.6 percent) are vaccinated, a good three percent have received the first dose (Germany 35.9 percent).

The emergency in Japan is not a lockdown: restaurants and bars shouldn't serve alcohol and close at 8 p.m., but they don't have to. Citizens are called upon to stay at home. Companies should make it possible to work from home. Large complexes such as department stores and cinemas should either remain closed or close earlier. Larger events in culture and sport are now allowed again, but with a maximum of 5000 spectators.