This is such a painful situation for Japan. When I visited a couple a years ago the preparations were still going full force. They were so proud and looking forward to hosting it. Really think they are between a rock and a hard place with any decision.

This together with all the sub-human conditions the workers in Qatar for the football world championship make it seem like organising events like this not something I would feel comfortable with hosting in my own country. It seems like it's a combination of hot potato and ego projects for specific people in governments.

hell, couple of years ago my country "won" the rights to host eurovision song festival. I'm not against investing money in a broad set of cultural activities. But looking at the amount of money it costed to host it felt not something that was worth the tax payers money. Rather we just payed the artists then all the pseudo glamour surrounding it.

This seems like the worst outcome for Japan and best outcome for the IOC. Japan incurs all the cost of hosting the Olympics while reaping none of the tourist yen, while the IOC gets paid the broadcasting fee. At this point the optimal outcome for Japan is probably to cancel the game altogether.

Is it an example of the political pull of the IOC? The Asian culture of face-saving? Or plain old sunk cost fallacy? I honestly don't know.

> it peaked at more than 2,500 cases per day in Tokyo

That's 0.027% of the population of Tokyo per day in a city that has over 6,000 people packed in per square kilometer.

By comparison, Idaho has a population density of 7.64 people per square kilometer, and right now the infection rate there is 0.021% of its population per day.

That's only a 30% difference in percentage of population infected per day, but there are three orders of magnitude between their population densities!

Whatever Tokyo is doing to keep COVID under control with such a crazy high population density, it looks like we've got an entire state over here in the U.S. that could still learn some of the basics.

The sad truth is that COVID accelerated xenophobia and isolationism throughout the world, and Japan is no exception.

I hope big tournaments will be more distributed in the future. Like soccer, no need for Qatar to kill thousands to build lots of stadiums that won't be used much in the future. Do like the Euro was going to: Have multiple host cities and reuse existing stadiums.

Olympics make everyone build a bob sleigh track. But it's such a niche sport and no one will ever use it again in most of the world. Or for summer olympics, one basically has to build an artificial river so a few people can kayak slalom.

Cost of these things are huge, and will most often not be much used by the population after. Instead, split it so that existing stuff can be reused. While it's cool with an olympic city, having 3 or more is probably just as nice an experience.

Aside:

I think that having the Olympics in one place for each season would be most 'entertaining', and better for the IOC.

Let's take the summer Olympics, likely to be in Athens as the spot. 'Top' countries would then pay pretty good money to have practice locations around Athens, so that the athletes get used to the area and are comfortable with the event locations. Heck, you could have them use the actual facilities as well.

Now, as is usual with Olympic coverage, the lead-up is all about how terrible things are going, and the ~two weeks of it are all about how the Olympic Village is running out of condoms. Not to be too crass, but having many athletes in Athens all the time would be a 24/7 discussion about very fit young people's intimate relationships and national pride.

It's a TV goldmine. And one the IOC can license.

Think about it: something like a HS-teen drama, with very beautiful/fit people, all in a crowded space, all competing together in disparate events, all with national pride on the line, and with a four year deadline for the 'show'. The relationships, of course, would be a big part of the idea, to further amp up the drama that the competition provides. Language barrier mishaps, tall-dark-hansomes, different dating customs, distant parents, coaches yelling, slipping out at night to abscond with a new relationship, national pride, crossing national barriers in friendship, creating new rivalries, the pressure cooker, etc. And then, at the end, the actual events and the epilogue that is a gold-medal ceremony after four years of hype.

And all of it being done with the IOC getting a cut, possibly making even more cash so they go along with it.

I think it would be great TV.

Tokyo Olympic situation is sucks for politics against covid. Gov softly ordered people/business to stay home, etc... , meanwhile they must make the event succeed with foreign people. It's inconsistent and it prevents strong operation. I wish they did this decision (or cancel the event) last year.

I've been looking forward to attending the Tokyo Olympics since they were selected years and years ago. This is very sad.

> The committee now needs to proceed with refunding foreign ticket holders and it is expected to separately consider what to do with foreign spectators to be invited by corporate sponsors of the games.

Depending on what they'll decide to do, I can clearly see this becoming a situation that many will consider unfair.

I think it is a wise solution, especially if we are trying to prevent Corona from spreading while also reducing the global damage form an eventual Akira incident.

Looks like a few things going on:

Vaccination in JP lags the US and UK. A survey found 75% of locals don't favor foreign visitors for the Olympics. They are fearful of SARS-COV-2 variants.

On the other hand, why not allow foreigners who can prove they are vaccinated with the vaccine that immunizes against variants and also get the locals vaccinated?

And, implicitly, if Japan isn't trusting vaccines, should other countries have similar concerns about free travel?

It is easy to see this decision as isolationist and xenophobic as Japan has a deeply ingrained reputation for both. I find it unfortunate longer delays could not be considered, such that Japan would not further emphasize this insular narrative.

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That's too bad. Makes you wonder if they shouldn't cancel or delay for another year (with a reset to the timing of the games that follow) while the vaccines get rolled out and we see how much normalcy can be regained.

I feel like this has to be a negotiating tactic to get another year delay out of the IOC. The competitors and support staff alone are already tens of thousands of people, no? There’s just no way they’ll be able to throw the Olympics if they aren’t prepared to open the border.