Tokyo Games has lost its meaning, feels Japan Olympic Committee member Yamaguchi

Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) member Kaori Yamaguchi has said that the upcoming Tokyo Olympics has “lost meaning” but meanwhile also accepted that now it’s too late to cancel or postpone the showpiece event.

Significantly, there has been growing demand by the local people in Japan to cancel or postpone the event however, organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has vowed to deliver a safe Olympics under strict Covid-19 measures and with most athletes and officials vaccinated.

In an opinion article for Kyodo News, Yamaguchi described “anxiety and distrust” between the public and the government over the event.

“What will these Olympics be for and for whom? The Games have already lost meaning and are being held just for the sake of them,” she wrote.

“We have been cornered into a situation where we cannot even stop now. We are damned if we do, and damned if we do not,” added Yamaguchi, who had won judo bronze in Seoul in 1988.

Meanwhile, she Yamaguchi also slammed the IOC, which has always repeatedly asserted that the Games will be held in any case.

“The IOC also seems to think that public opinion in Japan is not important,” she said.

Significantly, several polls have shown that nearly 80 percent of people in Japan are against the holding of the showpiece event at a time when the nation is witnessing the fourth wave of pandemic and with slow vaccination process.

News Desk

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