Yoshihiro Sakai

Opinion | Tokyo Olympics: how Japan’s coronavirus failures have left a dark cloud hanging over the Games

As calls mount for the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled or postponed, the Japanese government’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis has come into sharp focus

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Yoshihiro Sakai

Published: 9:15am, 29 May 2021Updated: 9:20am, 29 May 2021

Between 60 and 80 per cent of Japanese people want the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled or postponed, according to four surveys in May. They point to the rising number of Covid-19 cases and the government’s failure to deal with the crisis.

An editorial on May 26 in Asahi, one of Japan’s most prestigious newspapers and an official partner of the Tokyo Olympics, urged Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to cancel the Games. Mainichi, another major paper and official partner to the Games, along with 15 other local newspapers, have also published critical editorials in recent weeks.

They have taken issue with the comments of senior International Olympic Committee officials. On May 22, IOC chief Thomas Bach said: “We have to make some sacrifices to make this possible.” A day earlier, when a reporter asked John Coates, an IOC vice-president, if the Games would go ahead even if a state of emergency was in force in Japan, he replied, “Absolutely, yes.”

Renowned Japanese publishers placed a full-page advert in three major Japanese newspapers, Nikkei, Yomiuri and Asahi. The message – “No vaccine, no medicine. Should we fight with bamboo spears? We will be killed by politics” – was accompanied by an image of high-school girls practising how to fight against US soldiers with a bamboo spear during World War II.

The ad drew on a tragic wartime memory. On receiving the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945 – calling for the surrender of all Japanese forces – the Japanese government failed to make the life-or-death decision promptly, despite it being clear that defeat was certain. Instead, the Japanese imperial army continued to believe there was a chance to win through spiritual strength.

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Even as the Japanese cabinet was engaged in unproductive discussions, US bombers dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, resulting in the deaths of over 210,000 people or 36 per cent of the total population of the two cities.