The Japanese government's main pandemic advisor, Shigeru Omi, urges the government and organizers to hold the Olympic Games behind closed doors.

Refraining from spectators is desirable and the most effective way to reduce the risk of infection, according to recommendations that Omi presented on behalf of 26 doctors this Friday.

In their report, however, the experts also describe measures that could be taken to reduce the risk of infection with viewers.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan, based in Tokyo.

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    The report of the experts, who came together on their own initiative without an assignment, comes a few days before the decision on how many Japanese spectators should be allowed into the stadiums.

    On Monday the Organizing Committee will discuss this with the government, Tokyo’s metropolitan government and the International Olympic and Paralympic Committees.

    Foreign sports tourists had already been excluded in February.

    The committee had delayed the decision about local visitors for as long as possible.

    Actually recommendation for rejection

    Omi made it clear to journalists that the government experts had actually wanted to recommend that the games be canceled.

    After Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga obtained the approval of the heads of state and government of the Group of Seven (G-7) for the games, such a recommendation had become meaningless.

    The process makes it clear that, even in the pandemic, the primacy of politics over the Olympic Games rules.

    Suga had signaled just this week that he would like viewers there.

    In Japan, which is at least concerned with a formal consensus, it is highly unusual for a high-ranking and politically well-connected government advisor to openly contradict such a request.

    The 72-year-old Omi is a gentle physician who was formerly responsible for the Western Pacific in the World Health Organization.

    Omi emphasized that the size of the games was a completely different caliber than the regular soccer and baseball league games.

    If spectators are allowed, stricter rules must apply than for normal large events.

    By June 11, the government has limited the number of visitors to major events in Tokyo to 5,000 or half the seats.

    After that, there is initially an upper limit of 10,000 visitors.

    A maximum of 10,000 spectators

    Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said on Friday that 10,000 will also be the maximum limit for Olympic events. The experts also recommend that only locally based visitors should be allowed into the stadiums. Should the infection situation worsen, the organizers and the government would have to exclude fans for a short time. Omi paid special attention to the risk of infection caused by the movement of visitors. Olympic events could kick off up to 430,000 visitors per day in the Tokyo area, while a baseball league game would only activate 47,000 visitors.

    The organizers of the games want to urge visitors not to visit restaurants or bars before and after the events and to drive straight home. The President of the Organizing Committee, Seiko Hashimoto, emphasized that the organizers had reduced the number of arriving Olympic guests without athletes to 53,000, 29 percent of the usual number. Hashimoto underlined the will to meet the wishes of the sports fans, but also emphasized the necessary flexibility: "We have to prepare for the possibility of excluding spectators if the situation changes."