The International Olympic Committee (IOC) appeared to think it could steamroll over the wishes of the Japanese public, who, opinion polls show, overwhelmingly want the games cancelled or postponed, Kaori Yamaguchi said in an opinion piece carried by Japan’s Kyodo news agency.
Already postponed from last year because of the pandemic, a
scaled-down version of the Games with no foreign spectators is set to start on
July 23 despite public fears the event could drain medical resources and spread
the coronavirus as Japan battles a fourth wave of infections.
Yamaguchi, a former Olympic medallist in judo, accused the
Japanese government, the Tokyo 2020 organising committee and the IOC of
“avoiding dialogue”.
“The IOC also seems to think that public opinion in Japan is
not important,” she said.
“I believe we have already missed the opportunity to cancel
… 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.”
A series of comments by IOC officials, including one by IOC
Vice-President John Coates that the Olympics would be held even under a state
of emergency such as is currently in place in Tokyo and other regions, have
sparked outrage in Japan.
The Japanese government also says the Games can go ahead
safely despite a slow vaccine rollout and rising numbers of severe coronavirus
cases straining the medical system. The country has recorded nearly 750,000
cases and more than 13,000 deaths.
The nation’s most senior medical adviser said on Thursday
that public health guidance, including his, was not reaching the IOC in charge
of the event.
“We are now considering where we should give our advice,”
Shigeru Omi told lawmakers. “If they want to hold (the Games), it’s our job to
tell them what the risks are.”
Omi told lawmakers on Friday that he planned to issue the
views of medical experts on holding the Tokyo Olympics by June 20, when the
current state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions is set to end.
Seiko Hashimoto, head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee,
said on Thursday that it was important in such difficult times to bring a
divided world together with the “power of sports”.