Olympic sculpture in Odaiba Seaside Park, Tokyo. Tokyo/Reuters Yonhap News
Amid spreading skepticism about the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for July this year in Japan, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party executive has made an observation that it is expected to decide whether it will be held in late March. Following Taro Kono, the chief executive of the Liberal Democratic Party in charge of administrative reform raised the uncertainty over the hosting of the Olympics. On the 19th, he reported on the 19th that the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Political Affairs Chairman Shimomura Hakubun said on the night of the 18th that he appeared on a Japanese satellite broadcast and said, “I think it will be a standard in late March” regarding the timing of judging whether the Tokyo Olympics will be held. Chairman Jeongjo Shimomura was concerned about the situation of Corona 19, which will have a direct impact on the Tokyo Olympics, that “the spread of the infection is not stopping not only in Japan but all over the world.” Chairman Jeongjo is one of the four executive departments of the LDP. It seems that the reason that Chairman Jeongjo Shimomura pointed to March was that it was decided to postpone the Tokyo Olympics in late March last year. In addition, the torch relay is scheduled to begin in Fukushima on March 25th this year, which also means that it is necessary to decide whether or not to hold it before that. Earlier, in an interview with foreign media on the 14th, Kono mentioned the possibility of canceling the Tokyo Olympics for the first time among Japanese ministers. In Japan, emergencies have been re-announced in 11 places, including the metropolitan area, but the spread of Corona 19 has not subsided. For this reason, skepticism about hosting the Tokyo Olympics is spreading among the people. According to the results of the telephone poll conducted on the 9th to 10th, 80.1% of respondents said that the Tokyo Olympics should be stopped or postponed. By Kim So-yeon, staff reporter [email protected]