Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on Tuesday reiterated that the city is committed to holding the postponed Olympic Games next year with safety measures despite a recent resurgence of coronavirus infections in the capital.
Speaking at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Tokyo will take "all possible measures" to ensure the safety of athletes and other participants, Koike said. "The Tokyo 2020 Olympics can also symbolize the resilience of humanity as we work together to defeat this invisible enemy, COVID-19," the governor said.
She added that Tokyo would create a model for future Olympic Games in the post-coronavirus world. Koike said it is "crucial" to consider further cost-cutting in order to win support from Japanese people and the rest of the world.
Japan has so far escaped a coronavirus outbreak on the scale seen in Europe and the United States. However, with eight months until the opening of the games, Tokyo saw record numbers of daily infections last week, posting more than 500 new cases for the third day in a row.
Koike's comment comes one week after International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach traveled to Tokyo and held talks with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Koike and local organizers. Bach and Japanese officials vowed to keep the postponed Tokyo
Olympics on track despite the coronavirus pandemic. The IOC and Japan agreed in March to put off the Olympics by a year due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus, and the games are now scheduled to start on July 23, 2021.
