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 Organisers were set to formally reach the decision on spectators
during five-way talks between main parties on Thursday, the
newspaper said, citing people involved in the Games.
If confirmed, the ban on spectators would mark the latest blow to
the troubled Olympics, delayed by a year because of the pandemic and
plagued by a series of setbacks, including massive budget overruns.
Medical experts have said for weeks that having no spectators at the
Games would be the least risky option amid widespread public fears
that an influx of thousands of athletes and officials will fuel a
fresh wave of infections.
"I, of course, support 'no spectators' but concerns will never
disappear as long as we have a big event like the Games, along with
holidays and the vacation season," said Yuki Furuse, a Kyoto
University professor working with the government's coronavirus
experts group.
Furuse recently projected that new daily cases in Tokyo could
increase to 1,000 in July and 2,000 in August, raising the risk of
hospitals in the capital region running out of beds.
Anyone wanting to support athletes has been told clap rather than
cheer or sing. Sponsors are cancelling or scaling back
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/
sports/exclusive-olympics-frustrated-by-delays-tokyo-2020-sponsors-cancel-booths-2021-07-08
booths and events tied to the Games, frustrated by the "very
last-minute" decisions by organisers, sources told Reuters.
The talks, scheduled for 8 p.m. (1100 GMT) will be chaired by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, who
arrived in Tokyo on Thursday. Other participants include the Tokyo
and national governments and Paralympic officials.
"Taking into consideration the effect of coronavirus variants and
not to let the infections spread again to the rest of the nation, we
need to strengthen our countermeasures," Prime Minister Yoshihide
Suga said.
"Given the situation, we will issue a state of emergency for Tokyo."
TOKYO INFECTIONS RISE
Japan has not suffered the kind of explosive COVID-19 outbreaks seen
in many other countries but has had more than 810,000 cases and
14,900 deaths.
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 A slow vaccine rollout has
meant only a quarter of the population has had
at least one COVID-19 vaccination shot.
The new state of emergency in Tokyo comes as the capital announced
896 new daily infections on Thursday, near highs last seen in
mid-May.
The new restrictions in Tokyo, under which restaurants will be asked
to stop serving alcohol, will begin on Monday and run through to Aug
22.
The Games are scheduled to run from July 23 to Aug. 8.
Underscoring the last-minute nature of preparations, organisers have
presented various spectator scenarios to Olympic sponsors as late as
Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Sponsors were told that in the case of no spectators, all sports and
opening and closing ceremonies would likely be held without fans,
meaning tickets allocated to sponsors could not be used.
The absence of crowds will likely further strain the Games' budget
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2020-coronavirus-money-factb-idCAKCN2DY2MI,
which has already blown out to an estimated $15.4 billion, with
ticket revenues of about $815 million expected to take a big hit.
The organising committee did not immediately respond to an email
seeking comment.
Until this week, officials have insisted they could organise the
Games safely with some spectators, but a ruling party setback in a
Tokyo assembly election on Sunday, which some allies of Suga
attributed to public anger over the Olympics, had forced the change
of tack, sources said.
Japan will hold a parliamentary election later this year and the
government's insistence that the Games - postponed last year as the
virus spread around the world - should go ahead this year could cost
it at the ballot box, they said.
(Additional reporting by Rocky Swift and Eimi Yamamitsu; Editing by
Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel)
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