Olympics-Japan sees no Games impact from U.S. travel advice
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[May 25, 2021]
By Elaine Lies and Sakura Murakami
TOKYO (Reuters) -Top Japanese officials
said on Tuesday they did not expect a U.S. advisory against travel
to Japan due to coronavirus concerns to affect the Tokyo Olympics -
less than two months away - and that U.S. support for the Games was
unchanged.
The U.S. State Department's "Do Not Travel" advisory and guidance
for Japan on Monday did not mention the Olympics specifically but
warned against visiting the country now.
"At present, we can see no particular impact," Olympic Minister
Tamayo Marukawa told a news conference. She noted that the advisory
did not ban essential travel and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic
Committee had said planned mitigation practices would allow for safe
participation of Team USA athletes.
Japanese and Olympic officials have pledged the Games will go ahead
as planned on July 23 after being postponed in 2020, even as surveys
show a majority of Japanese want the Games cancelled or postponed
due to worries over coronavirus.
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An online "Stop Tokyo Olympics" campaign had collected 387,000
signatures as of Tuesday, organisers said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Japan was in close
contact with the U.S. government.
"There is absolutely no change in the United States' support for
Japan's decision to hold the Olympics, we believe," Kato said.
In its new guidance, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention said travellers should avoid all travel to Japan.
"Because of the current situation in Japan even fully vaccinated
travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19
variants," it said.
Australia has also advised against travel to Japan due to health
risks from COVID-19 and disruptions to global travel.
MILITARY MEDICAL PERSONNEL
Japan has avoided the large-scale infections suffered by many other
nations, but a fourth wave has triggered states of emergency in
Tokyo, Osaka and other localities across the nation.
The governor of Osaka said on Tuesday the prefecture would seek to
extend the emergency beyond the current end-date of May 31.
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![](../images/052521PIX/olympics_small.jpg)
The logo of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
that have been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) outbreak, is seen through signboards, at Tokyo
Metropolitan Government Office building in Tokyo, Japan January 22,
2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
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Japan's slow vaccination roll-out has
added to coronavirus concerns.
The country, which has recorded 715,940 infections and 12,308 deaths
from the virus, has delivered vaccinations to just under 5% of its
population, the slowest among the world's larger, rich countries.
Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi told a parliamentary panel the
government was arranging to send military medical personnel to the
Games at the request of organisers, but added the move would not
affect mass vaccination sites set up by the military in Tokyo and
Osaka, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), which oversees Team
USA, said in a statement to Reuters that it was aware of the updated
State Department advisory on Japan.
"We feel confident that the current mitigation practices in place
for athletes and staff by both the USOPC and the Tokyo Organizing
Committee, coupled with the testing before travel, on arrival in
Japan, and during Games time, will allow for safe participation of
Team USA athletes this summer," the statement said.
Ruling Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai also
said he saw no direct impact on the Olympics from the U.S. travel
advisory but added that there were important practical issues that
remained to be resolved.
International spectators will not be allowed to enter Japan to
attend the Games but a decision has yet to be made on domestic
viewers.
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Banning overseas spectators will cut the economic boost from the
Games by 151.1 billion yen ($1.39 billion) while a full cancellation
would mean a lost stimulus of 1.8 trillion yen, or 0.33% of GDP, the
Nomura Research Institute said in a report.
($1=108.7400 yen)
(Reporting by Elaine Lies, Sakura Murakami, Yoshifumi Takemoto and
Takashi Umekawa; writing by Linda Sieg; editing by Richard Pullin)
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