In this article Jardar Alai explains the movement to cancel the olympics.
Photo Credit: Reuters
Last year, the Summer Olympics were supposed to be hosted in Tokyo, that would be the 4th time Japan hosted the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee delayed the Olympics by one year. A reason poll made in the leading Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed 80% of Japanese people wanted to cancel the Tokyo Olympics because of the covid situation in the country. The IOC decided to not listen to the majority of the Japanese and to continue the games.
Most people think the Olympics are too big of a health risk for the country. Tokyo has been in a state of emergency because of the infection situation in the city. Only 8% of Japan's population has been fully vaccinated and that’s too low of a percentage to host the Olympics.
Both young and old have taken their time to protest but in different ways. Young adults and Genz are spreading awareness through social media but 30 and older have taken more traditional routes for protesting. Momoko Nojo, a local activist, told teen vogue: In Japan, people feel difficulty in raising their voices due to strong peer pressure. There is great significance in social media that can help people educate themselves and lower the hurdles to raising their voices. The work of Genz is not bad, they made 40,000 people sign a Petition cancel Olympic on change.org and that was the highest signed petition of change.org Japan. Both parts are working for an important case for them, but all the hard work was for nothing.
The IOC has decided to schedule summer Olympics between 23 July to 8 August. No foreign fans can travel to Japan to watch the Olympics. Instead, up to 10,000 Japanese fans will be permitted to attend the games, and that’s around half what the venue has space for. The Athletes are tested for covid every day in Japan.
Many Japanese are not impressed with the IOC's decision and some Japanese athletes like Naomi Osaka have also raised concerns about IOC's decision to continue this year's Olympics. They feel the reasoning for having the Olympics this year are more financial than anything else and for that many feel that’s an attack on democracy.
Sources:
Teen vogue(june 22.2021) 2021 Tokyo Olympics Prompt Protest, Online Activism in Japan https://www.teenvogue.com/story/olympics-2021-tokyo-protests 29.06.2021
BBC(June.25.2021) Tokyo Olympic Games: When are they and will they go ahead despite Covid? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57240044 29.06.2021