The mixture of sport and pandemic is also causing a stir in Japan at the beginning of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

The focus is of course not on a para-functionary, but once again on the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach.

He had already drawn severe criticism several times in the past few weeks.

Now the anger of the government's top corona advisor, Shigeru Omi, met the IOC president.

In an unusually blunt manner for Japan, Omi criticized the fact that Bach had come to the opening of the Paralympic Games.

"I wonder why he had to bother to come," Omi said in a session of a parliamentary committee.

"He should be able to judge the situation with common sense."

Patrick Welter

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

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The criticism of Bach's visit comes on a day when the government decided to expand the virus emergency from 13 to 21 prefectures.

Almost 80 percent of the population are now subject to the special anti-corona rules until September 12.

Another 12 of the 47 prefectures are subject to stricter rules without a state of emergency.

With the expansion, the government responded to the fact that the rapid spread of the Delta variant has driven new infections to more than 20,000 a day nationwide.

The experienced disease doctor Omi would have loved to cancel the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"We ask the population to work more from home"

Like many medical professionals in Japan, he had long feared that the games would send the wrong signal to the public that restraint was not so necessary in the pandemic. The government is currently asking the Japanese to refrain from outside activities that are not urgently required. Against this background, Omi's criticism of Bach is sparked by the different standards that are applied. "We ask the population to work more from home," said Omi. “If President Bach has to give a speech, why can't he do it online?” Bach landed in Tokyo on Monday to attend the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games on Tuesday. On Wednesday he attended five Paralympic competitions before flying back to Switzerland.

When asked, IOC and IPC said that Bach had come at the invitation of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to support the Paralympic Games and athletes. The visit was authorized by the Japanese government. But this is not accepted as a sufficient reason by the media and many Japanese. Trouble is still based today on the fact that Bach was spotted walking with bodyguards in the upscale Ginza shopping district the day after the Olympics ended. This had sparked indignation in Japanese social networks.

The spokesman for the local organizing committee still finds it difficult to explain this walk in response to questions from Japanese journalists. According to his statements, Bach did not violate any quarantine requirements. But the rules of the games provide that the participants should refrain from unnecessary activities, the spokesman said in a press conference. The rating depends on what Bach did in Ginza. In front of the parliamentary committee, Omi found an almost mocking comment on Bach's new visit to the Paralympic Games: “He was already here. Hadn't he already gone to Ginza? "