Tokyo Olympics
In swimming, it’s different strokes for different folks
The Hungarians like medleys. The Dutch have been known to dominate in sprinting. The Japanese specialize in breaststroke. The Swedes excel at butterfly.
In a sport like swimming, where medals will be handed out in a whopping 35 different pool events at the Tokyo Olympics, it makes sense that many countries focus on a single stroke or event.
“It’s all about which role models you have when you grow up,” said Sarah Sjöström, the Swedish standout who has won one Olympic gold and seven world titles in butterfly events.
Also read: Which Swimming Style Is Best For Fat Loss?
Sjöström’s idols as a kid were six-time Olympian Therese Alshammar, Anna-Karin Kammerling and Josefin Lillhage. Alshammar and Kammerling swam the fly and freestyle sprints and Lillhage did the 200-meter freestyle.
No wonder why Sjöström has built her career around the fly and free sprints, as well as the 200 free.
“I wanted to race Therese. I wanted to race Anna-Karin Kammerling and Josefin Lillhage,” Sjöström said. “In Sweden the girls look up to me. They want to race me in the future, so they want to race the 50 and 100 fly.”
Also read: Former Olympic swimming champion van der Burgh has virus
Butterfly is popular in Hungary, too, although that’s part of a bigger tradition that’s all about the grueling medley events that feature all four strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
Tamás Darnyi swept gold in both medleys (the 200 and the 400) at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics and Krisztina Egerszegi won the 400 IM in 1992 to add to a bunch of backstroke medals.
Four of the six Olympic medals won by László Cseh between 2004 and 2012 came in IM and then Katinka Hosszú swept gold in the IMs four years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
“For us Hungarians, we are very stubborn and very much hard-working and we can just grind it out,” said Hosszú, who is nicknamed the “Iron Lady.”
“The 400 IM is where Hungary gets a lot of respect, because a 400 IM is really about how much work you put in,” Hosszú added.
Dutch veterans Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Femke Heemskerk grew up idolizing sprinting legends Inge de Bruijn and Pieter van den Hoogenband and train in a pool named for the latter.
“We are tall people and we are a very small country, so we have to train wisely,” Heemskerk said. “In Hungary they’re used to hard work from a very young age. We don’t do that, so maybe that’s why we sprint.”
Russia also has a tradition of producing great freestyle sprinters, led by Alexander Popov; as do the French with Alain Bernard and Frédérick Bousquet paving the way for current contender Florent Manaudou.
There are exceptions to the rule, of course.
Kira Toussaint is the rare Dutch backstroker and Arno Kamminga, another Dutch swimmer, races breaststroke. While Toussaint is the daughter of an Olympic backstroking champion, both she and Kamminga attribute their stroke choices to their body sizes: they are shorter and stockier than their sprint teammates.
“I’m not that long or tall,” Kamminga acknowledged. “But I always loved the breaststroke. … I’m just happy to be competing with the best of the world.”
Even the United States and Australia, swimming’s two powerhouse teams, have their pet events.
For the U.S., it’s the men’s 100 and 200 backstroke, where the team’s last Olympic loss for both events came in 1992. Ryan Murphy, who swept both races in Rio, will attempt to keep the streak going next week, building on a legacy that has also included doubles from Lenny Krayzelburg and Aaron Peirsol.
Between 1992 and 2004, Australian men won the 1,500 free — the longest race in the pool — at four consecutive Olympics. Kieren Perkins (1992 and 1996) and Grant Hackett (2000 and 2004) each won consecutive golds in the event.
These days, Italy is a force in the distance events, with both Gregorio Paltrinieri and Simona Quadarella medal favorites in the 1,500.
In breaststroke, the host country’s rising star is 20-year-old Shoma Sato. The bar was set high by Japanese great Kosuke Kitajima, who swept both breaststroke events at the 2004 and 2008 Games.
“(Kitajima) transformed the way breaststroke was swam,” said Christian Minotti, Quadarella’s coach. “He modernized the stroke and made it more creative and fluid.”
WHO head says Olympics virus risk inevitable
The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:
The head of the World Health Organization says the Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by how many COVID-19 cases arise because eliminating risk is impossible.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an International Olympic Committee meeting that how infections are handled is what matters most.
Also read: Japan girds for a surreal Olympics, and questions are plenty
“The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible and onward transmission is interrupted,” he said.
The number of Games-linked COVID-19 cases in Japan this month was 79 on Wednesday, with more international athletes testing positive at home and unable to travel.
Teammates classed as close contacts of infected athletes can continue training and preparing for events under a regime of isolation and extra monitoring.
Host Japan is off to a winning start as the Tokyo Olympics get underway, beating Australia 8-1 Wednesday in softball behind 39-year-old pitcher Yukiko Ueno, who won the 2008 gold medal game against the United States.
Also read: Tokyo's daily COVID-19 cases top 1,000 for 3rd straight day, just a week before Olympics
The game was played in a nearly empty stadium. Fans were barred because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many in Japan have questioned whether the Olympics should take place at all with low levels of vaccination in the nation.
Ueno allowed two hits over 4 1/3 innings and struck out seven, throwing 85 pitches for the win.
Minori Naito and Saki Yamazaki hit two-run homers off loser Kaia Parnaby. Yu Yamamoto, who had three RBIs, added a two-run drive against Tarni Stepto in the fifth that ended the game under a rout rule.
Japan is defending softball gold medalist after upsetting the U.S. in the 2008 final. Softball and baseball were dropped for 2012 and 2016 and restored for these Olympics. They already have been dropped for the 2024 Paris Games but are likely to be restored for 2028 in Los Angeles.
1st case of COVID-19 found in Tokyo Olympic village
The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Saturday the first positive case of COVID-19 has been detected in the Tokyo athletes' village with less than a week until the opening ceremony.
The organizing committee did not identify the individual but said the infected person is a visitor from abroad involved in organizing the games, and not an athlete. The person did not share sleeping quarters with anyone, it said.
Read: Japan's Olympic security balancing act leaves few satisfied
Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said the individual was isolated after testing positive and transported to a dedicated medical facility outside of the athletes' village.
No specifics about the severity of the person's condition have been disclosed.
The news comes as the number of Olympic-related arrivals to Tokyo grows, with the peak expected on Sunday.
Muto informed the media of the first positive test taken at a regular screening at the village in the capital's Harumi waterfront district, but that he was unaware of the person's vaccination status.
Read: Nobel Laureate Prof Yunus to receive Olympic Laurel
According to organizers, a saliva-based test was taken on Thursday and came back positive the following day. The case was confirmed with a positive PCR test at an outpatient facility within the athletes' village.
The case is one of 15 new positive results among games participants and workers reported on Saturday, the highest daily count since the committee started compiling figures on July 1. The overall tally does not include athletes at pre-Olympic training camps in Japan.
Of the 15 infection cases, seven are contractors, six are Olympic staff members and two are members of the press. Eight traveled from abroad for the games and have been in Japan for fewer than 14 days, while seven are Japan residents.
There have been a total of 45 COVID-19 infections announced by organizers since July 1.
The village, with 21 residential buildings, 3,600 rooms and 18,000 beds, opened to athletes on Tuesday.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who arrived in Japan on July 8, told Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that 85 percent of athletes and officials living in the Olympic village would be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
While in Japan, athletes are in principle restricted to the village and their training and competition venues as organizers try to enforce a "bubble" environment. They will also be subject to daily coronavirus screening.
Bach, who visited the Olympic village on Thursday morning, was reported as promising there was "zero" risk of athletes transmitting the virus into the Japanese community or to other residents of the village.
At a press conference on Saturday, he clarified the reporting over his comments, saying he was referring to zero risk of infection from three specific positive cases.
Also on Saturday, Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto told a press conference after the IOC Executive Board meeting at a Tokyo hotel that the IOC has praised Tokyo's preparations for the games.
"We are doing everything possible to ensure that there is no COVID-19 outbreak," Hashimoto said.
"I believe successfully pushing through to the end (of the games) is the legacy," she said.
The Olympics run from July 23 to Aug. 8, and Tokyo's fourth coronavirus state of emergency is scheduled for July 12 to Aug. 22, lifting before the Paralympic Games open on Aug. 24.
Japan's Olympic security balancing act leaves few satisfied
Struggling businesses forced to temporarily shut down around Olympics venues. Olympic visitors ordered to install invasive apps and allow GPS tracking. Minders staking out hotels to keep participants from coming into contact with ordinary Japanese or visiting restaurants to sample the sushi.
Japan’s massive security apparatus has raised complaints that the nation, during the weeks of the Games, will look more like authoritarian North Korea or China than one of the world’s most powerful, vibrant democracies.
Read: 6 athletes to represent Bangladesh in Tokyo Olympics
The worry for many here, however, isn’t too much Big Brother. It’s that all the increased precautions won’t be nearly enough to stop the estimated 85,000 athletes, officials, journalists and other workers coming into Japan from introducing fast-spreading coronavirus variants to a largely unvaccinated population already struggling with mounting cases.
“It’s all based on the honor system, and it’s causing concern that media people and other participants may go out of their hotels to eat in Ginza,” Takeshi Saiki, an opposition lawmaker, said of what he called Japan’s lax border controls. So far, the majority of Olympic athletes and other participants have been exempted from typical quarantine requirements.
There have been regular breakdowns in security as the sheer enormity of trying to police so many visitors becomes clearer — and the opening ceremony looms. The Japanese press is filled with reports of Olympic-related people testing positive for the coronavirus. Photos and social media posts show foreigners linked to the Games breaking mask rules and drinking in public, smoking in airports — even, if the bios are accurate, posting on dating apps.
“There are big holes in the bubbles,” said Ayaka Shiomura, another opposition lawmaker, speaking of the so-called “bubbles” that are supposed to separate the Olympics’ participants from the rest of the country.
The pandemic has tested democracies around the world as they try to strike a balance between the need to protect basic rights and the national imperative to control a disease that thrives when people gather in large numbers.
Few places, however, have faced higher stakes than Tokyo will during July and August — or closer global scrutiny. The government, well aware of repeated domestic surveys that show strong opposition to the Games, argues that its security and monitoring measures are crucial as it tries to pull off an Olympics during a once-in-a-century pandemic.
But as the restrictions are tested by increasing numbers of visitors, officials have been blamed for doing too much, and too little.
The government and the Games’ organizers “are treating visitors as if they are potential criminals,” Chizuko Ueno, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Tokyo, said on YouTube.
Read: Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23-Aug 8 in 2021
There’s also lingering resentment over a widespread sentiment that Japan is facing this balancing act because the International Olympic Committee needs to have the Games happen, regardless of the state of the virus, to get the billions of dollars in media revenue critical to its survival.
“The Olympics are held as an IOC business. Not only the Japanese people, but others around the world, were turned off by the Olympics after all of us saw the true nature of the Olympics and the IOC through the pandemic,” mountaineer Ken Noguchi told the online edition of the Nikkan Gendai newspaper.
Senior sports editors at major international media companies, meanwhile, have asked organizers to “reconsider some measures that go beyond what is necessary to keep participants and residents safe,” saying they “show a disregard for the personal privacy and technological security of our colleagues.”
Japan has fared better during the pandemic than many nations, but the Olympians will be arriving only a few months after a coronavirus spike had some Japanese hospitals nearing collapse as ICUs filled with the sick. While the surge has tempered, cases are rising enough for the declaration of yet another state of emergency in Tokyo.
One of the highest-profile security problems came last month when a Ugandan team member arriving in Japan tested positive for what turned out to be the more contagious delta variant. He was quarantined at the airport, but the rest of the nine-person team was allowed to travel more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) on a chartered bus to their pre-Olympics camp, where a second Ugandan tested positive, forcing the team and seven city officials and drivers who had close contact with them to self-isolate.
On Friday, a Uganda team member went missing, raising more questions about the oversight of Olympic participants.
So what are the restrictions that Olympic-linked visitors face?
For the first 14 days in Japan, Olympic visitors outside the athletes’ village are banned from using public transportation and from going to bars, tourist spots and most restaurants. They cannot even take a walk, or visit anywhere, in fact, that’s not specifically mentioned in activity plans submitted in advance. There are some exceptions authorized by organizers: specifically designated convenience stores, takeaway places and, in rare cases, some restaurants that have private rooms.
Athletes, tested daily for the coronavirus, will be isolated in the athletes’ village and are expected to stay there, or in similarly locked-down bubbles at venues or training sites. Those who break the rules could be sent home or receive fines and lose the right to participate in the Games.
Everyone associated with the Olympics will be asked to install two apps when entering Japan. One is an immigration and health reporting app, and the other is a contact tracing app that uses Bluetooth. They will also have to consent to allowing organizers to use GPS to monitor their movements and contacts through their smartphones if there’s an infection or violation of rules.
“We are not going to monitor the behavior at all times,” Organizing Committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. “The thing is, though, if there should be issues pertaining to their activity then, since the GPS function will be on, we’ll be able to verify their activities.”
Japan also plans to station human monitors at venues and hotels, though it’s not yet clear how many.
“We will control every entry and exit. We will have a system that will not allow anyone to go outside freely,” Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said.
Other nations, both democratic and autocratic, have also tried to control and monitor behavior and businesses during the pandemic.
In the United States, for instance, NFL teams tracked their athletes in the team facilities. South Korean health authorities have aggressively used smartphone GPS data, credit-card transaction records and surveillance videos to find and isolate potential virus carriers. Tracking apps are used to monitor thousands of individuals quarantined at home.
In China, mask mandates, lockdowns confining millions to their homes and case tracing on a nationwide scale have faced little or no opposition. North Korea has shut its borders even tighter, skipped the Olympics and canceled or seriously curtailed access for foreign diplomats, aid workers and outside journalists.
While the security restrictions in Japan will be a hassle for visitors, they could also hit locals hard.
Hiroshi Kato, a fencing instructor, said he worries that he’ll lose even more business than he did during the pandemic because he’s been ordered to move from the building where he works across from the main Olympics stadium from July 1 to Sep. 19, for unspecified security reasons.
“I feel helpless,” he said in an interview. “To safely hold the Games, some restrictions are understandable … but (the organizers) knew this for a long time and perhaps could have provided some assistance for us.”
Tokyo's daily COVID-19 cases top 1,000 for 3rd straight day, just a week before Olympics
The Tokyo metropolitan government reported 1,271 new daily COVID-19 cases on Friday, topping 1,000 for the third straight day just a week before the Tokyo Olympics start.
The figure in the capital, which is currently under a fourth COVID-19 state of emergency amid a resurgence of infections, hit 1,308 on Thursday, its highest level since late January.
Read: 6 athletes to represent Bangladesh in Tokyo Olympics
The capital's latest number topped the figure posted in the week earlier for the 27th straight day, raising its seven-day rolling average of infections per day to 946.3, up 37.8 percent from the previous week.
Health experts advising the metropolitan government have warned the moving average could jump to 2,406 by Aug. 11, shortly after the Olympics end on Aug. 8, topping the third wave that swept across Tokyo in the winter.
Read: Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23-Aug 8 in 2021
Public concerns remain high that the Olympics could become a superspreader event with the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, first found in India.
6 athletes to represent Bangladesh in Tokyo Olympics
An 18-member contingent from Bangladesh, including six athletes who will represent the country in various disciplines and 12 officials, will join the world's biggest sports carnival, the Olympic Games, to be held in Japanese capital Tokyo from July 23 to August 8 next.
The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the 32nd Olympiad and branded as Tokyo 2020, the world's biggest international multi sports festival, finally looks set to proceed, after being held over from last year due to the pandemic -the first time in the Games' history that they have been postponed and rescheduled, rather than cancelled.
The Tokyo Olympics, originally scheduled for July 24 to August 9 in 2020, was postponed in March 2020 for the Covid-19 pandemic and later rescheduled for 2021. It will now be held largely behind closed doors with no spectators permitted under the state of emergency.
Also read: Genuinely excited to welcome Bangladesh Olympic team to Tokyo: Japanese envoy
Six Bangladeshi athletes will compete in four disciplines of sports --archery, swimming,athletics and Shooting --in their dream.
How will the virus emergency affect the Olympics?
A virus state of emergency began Monday in Japan’s capital, as the number of new cases is climbing fast and hospital beds are starting to fill just 11 days ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Here’s a look at the state of emergency and how it will affect the Olympics.
WHAT RESTRICTIONS ARE THERE?
The six-week emergency is Japan’s fourth since the pandemic began and will last until Aug. 22. The main target of the new state of emergency is alcohol served at bars and restaurants as authorities want people to stay home and watch the games on TV and not gather in public.
Like past emergencies, most of the measures are requests because the government lacks a legal basis to enforce hard lockdowns. Authorities have recently given themselves more power to issue binding orders for businesses to close or shorten hours in exchange for compensation. They can also now fine businesses that violate those orders.
Also read: Japan to declare virus emergency lasting through Olympics
The new state of emergency requests that restaurants, bars, karaoke parlors and other entertainment outlets either close or not serve alcohol. It asks liquor stores to suspend business with restaurants and bars that defy the request, but liquor stores say that would hurt their business ties.
Schools will stay open during this emergency, while theme parks, museums, theaters and most stores and restaurants are requested to close at 8 p.m.
Tokyo residents are asked to avoid nonessential outings, work from home and stick to mask-wearing and other safety measures. Measures for the general public are non-mandatory.
WHAT AREAS DOES IT COVER?
The latest state of emergency covers Tokyo’s nearly 14 million residents, while less-stringent measures focusing on shortened hours for restaurants and bars affect 31 million other people in nearby cities of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa that are home to some Olympic venues.
The measures also cover Osaka, which was hit hard by a virus surge in April, and the southern island of Okinawa.
HOW WILL THIS AFFECT THE OLYMPICS?
The state of emergency will cover the entire duration of the July 23-Aug. 8 Olympics and its main impact will be in barring fans from stadiums and arenas in the Tokyo area.
While the state of emergency mainly covers Tokyo, Olympic officials have decided to bar fans from events hosted in Tokyo’s three neighboring prefectures, while allowing limited fans at other outlying venues. Soccer events in Hokkaido and baseball and softball games in Fukushima, however, will also bar fans due to virus concerns.
Also read: Tokyo shapes up to be No-Fun Olympics with many rules, tests
The games have already been postponed from 2020 by the pandemic, and fans from abroad were banned months ago.
With the new restrictions, the games will now be a largely TV-only event.
HOW BAD IS JAPAN’S VIRUS SITUATION?
Japan has weathered the pandemic better than many other countries, logging about bout 820,000 cases and 15,000 deaths.
But the situation has grown more serious in recent weeks, and Tokyo hit a two-month high of 950 new cases on Saturday. Experts have warned that the delta variant, which is thought to be more contagious, is spreading fast in offices and classrooms and without tough measures the numbers could skyrocket by August.
About 16.8% of the population has been fully vaccinated, a number that has picked up since May but is still far short of where officials hoped to be before the Olympics. Younger people are largely unvaccinated.
WILL THE PUBLIC COMPLY?
Experts worry whether the latest state of emergency requests will be followed when many people are already fatigued by the restraints and grown less cooperative.
Health Minister Norihisa Tamura has said that effectively preventing people from going out drinking amid festive mood of the Olympic will be a headache.
Also read: Tokyo Olympics to be held mostly without spectators due to pandemic
Young people are already gathering in streets and parks to drink after restaurants and bars close at 8 p.m. Tokyo metropolitan officials have started nighttime patrolling to chase them away.
Experts say Japanese roaming around during their summer vacations and the Olympics could be a greater risk than athletes and other participants whose activity will be closely monitored.
Athlete Jahir Raihan picked for Tokyo Olympics
The Bangladesh Athletics Federation has chosen the country's famed athlete Mohammad Jahir Raihan to compete in the 400-metre run in the athletics event at Tokyo Olympics – slated to be held during July 23-August 8.
The selection committee of the Athletics Federation chose the country record holder Navy athlete Jahir from the shortlist of three, considering his performance at the local and international events.
The two other short-listed athletes were Shirin Akhter (100-metre sprint) and Mohammad Ismail (100 -metre sprint).
Earlier, the country's celebrated archer Ruman Shana became the first Bangladeshi athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
Later, two Bangladeshi swimmers – Ariful Islam and Junaiyana Ahmed – earned wild cards to compete in the Olympics.
Preparations for the Games are progressing under tight Covid-19 protocols.
Packed trains, drinking: Japanese impatient over virus steps
Trains packed with commuters returning to work after a weeklong national holiday. Frustrated young people drinking in the streets because bars are closed. Protests planned over a possible visit by the Olympics chief.
As the coronavirus spreads in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Olympics starting in 11 weeks, one of the world’s least vaccinated nations is showing signs of strain, both societal and political.
The government — desperate to show a worried public it is in control of virus efforts even as it pushes a massive sporting event that a growing number of Japanese oppose hosting in a pandemic — on Friday announced a decision to expand and extend a state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas through May 31.
For Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the emergency declaration is both a health measure and a political tightrope walk as domestic criticism rises of Japan’s seeming determination to hold the Olympics at any cost.
“I understand there are concerns about hosting the Olympics,” Suga said. He said foreign athletes and other participants will be strictly separated from the Japanese public and that “it is possible to hold a safe and secure Olympics while protecting the people’s lives and health.”
Suga said a donation of vaccines by Pfizer Inc. to the International Olympic Committee for athletes will be “a big contribution” to a safe games.
A speculated mid-May visit by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has become “extremely difficult” because of the extension of the emergency, Japanese organizing chief Seiko Hashimoto said at a news conference Friday.
The government has also been criticized over its snail-paced vaccination rollout, which has fully covered less than 1% of the population since inoculations began in mid-February.
Suga pledged on Friday to speed up inoculations so all 36 million elderly Japanese can be fully vaccinated by the end of July. He set a daily target of 1 million shots, more than 20 times the current daily average, but did not explain how that would be possible amid a dire shortage of medical workers who can give vaccinations.
Japan has avoided implementing a hard lockdown to curb infections, and past states of emergency have had little teeth, with people and businesses free to ignore the provisions. These measures have since been toughened, but they come as citizens show increased impatience and less desire to cooperate, making it possible that the emergency declaration will be less effective.
The current state of emergency in Tokyo and Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures in the west was scheduled to end Tuesday. Suga said his government has decided to extend it in those areas and expand it to Aichi in central Japan and Fukuoka in the south.
On Friday, two days after “Golden Week” holiday makers returned to their daily routine, Tokyo logged 907 new cases of coronavirus infections, up sharply from 635 when the state of emergency began in the capital last month, but far above the target of 100 that some experts recommend.
Officials and experts say significantly fewer people may have been tested for the virus during the holiday, when many testing centers and hospitals were closed, and caution the numbers during and right after the holiday period may not reflect reality.
During the holidays, significantly more people than last year were seen at tourist spots in Kyoto and Nara despite stay-at-home requests. With drinking places closed, younger people carrying canned beer and snacks gathered in parks and streets in downtown Tokyo. When the holiday ended, many defied requests for remote work and returned to their offices on packed trains.
The extension deepens uncertainties over a speculated May 17 visit by International Olympics Committee President Thomas Bach, and whether Japan can safely host the Olympics postponed from last year and currently scheduled for July 23-Aug. 8.
Despite criticism for being slow to take virus measures, Suga has been reluctant to hurt the already pandemic-damaged economy and pledged to keep the state of emergency “short and intensive,” though experts said just over two weeks would be too short to effectively slow the infections and even the extension may be insufficient.
Dr. Shigeru Omi, head of a government taskforce, cautioned officials Friday that a hasty lifting of the emergency would only invite an immediate resurgence.
The ongoing emergency is Japan’s third and came only a month after an earlier measure ended in the Tokyo area.
Less stringent, quasi-emergency measures will be expanded to eight prefectures from the current six, where bars and restaurants are required to close early.
Japan has had about 621,000 cases including about 10,600 deaths since the pandemic began.
Medical systems in hardest-hit Osaka have been under severe pressure from a COVID-19 outbreak there that is hampering ordinary health care, experts say. A number of patients died at home recently after their conditions worsened while waiting for vacancies at hospitals.
Past emergency measures authorized only non-mandatory requests. The government in February toughened a law on anti-virus measures to allow authorities to issue binding orders for nonessential businesses to shorten their hours or close, in exchange for compensation for those who comply and penalties for violators.
Shutdown requirements will be eased somewhat. Bars, karaoke studios and most other entertainment facilities will be required to remain closed until the end of May, but department stores will be able to operate for shorter hours and stadiums and concert halls will be allowed to have up to 5,000 people or half their capacity.
Wearing masks, staying home and other measures for the general public remain non-mandatory requests.
Torch relay for Tokyo Olympics kicks off its 121-day journey
The torch relay for the postponed Tokyo Olympics began its 121-day journey across Japan on Thursday and is headed toward the opening ceremony in Tokyo on July 23.
The relay began in northeastern Fukushima prefecture, the area that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and the meltdown of three nuclear reactors. About 18,000 died in the tragedy.
Also Read: Tokyo Olympics postponed
The first runner with the torch was Azusa Iwashimizu, a key player in the Japan team that won the Women’s World Cup in 2011.
Wearing a white track suit, she carried the torch out of the J-Village indoor soccer training center and was surrounded by 14 other members of that 2011 World Cup squad and coach Norio Sasaki at the rear. They were also decked out in white track suits.
Also Read: Speculation over Tokyo Olympics: 2021, 2032 or not at all?
The ceremony was closed to the public because of the fear of spreading COVID-19 but was streamed live.
“The torch of Tokyo 2020 will become a bright light for hope for Japanese citizens and citizens in the world and a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the local organizing committee and a former Olympian herself.
Homare Sawa, the biggest star on the 2011 team, missed the ceremony. She is being treated for a condition affecting her inner ear and had to withdraw from the event.
Fans were told to social-distance along the roadside as the torch passes, and they were to refrain from loud cheering. Organizers have said they will stop or reroute the relay if crowding becomes a problem during the four-month parade.
Spectators cooperated in Naraha Town, just down the road from where the torch started its trip. A few hundred people stood on the roadside and were safely spread out.
“At first I didn’t think much of it,” said 20-year-old Takumu Kimura. “But when I actually saw it, it felt like: — yes, it’s the Olympics.”
Setsuko Hashimoto, a 63-year-old local resident, was emotional as the torch passed.
“Ten years ago there was a nuclear accident so (seeing the torch) it felt like I could really look forward to something and live,” she said. “When you become my age, this is the last Tokyo Olympics and it’s here. It was very touching.”
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga chimed in from Tokyo with a statement.
“The Olympic torch relay starting from today is a valuable opportunity for the people to get a real sense of the Olympics and Paralympics that are approaching,” Suga told reporters.
Local organizers and the International Olympic Committee hope the relay will turn public opinion in Japan in favor of the Olympics. Sentiments expressed in polls in Japan so far are overwhelmingly negative with about 80% suggesting another delay or cancellation.
The relay and the Olympics both stir fear that the events could spread the virus. There is also opposition to the soaring cost of staging the Olympics, now put officially at $15.4 billion. Several audits suggest it’s twice that much and a University of Oxford study says these are the most expensive Olympics on record.
The relay is a big test for the upcoming Olympics with fear among the public that the event could spread the virus to rural and more isolated parts of the country. Vaccinations have not been rolled out yet in Japan to the general public. About 9,000 deaths in the country have been attributed to COVID-19.
About 10,000 runners are expected to take part, with the relay touching Japan’s 47 prefectures.
After the postponement a year ago, there was early talk of eliminating the relay to save money. However, that idea was quickly dropped with the relay heavily sponsored by Coca-Cola and Toyota.
The relay is a prelude to the difficulties the Olympics and Paralympics will present with 15,400 athletes entering Japan, along with thousands of other officials, judges, VIPs, media, and broadcasters.
Athletes will be kept in a “bubble” like atmosphere in Tokyo and will be limited to the Athletes Village on Tokyo Bay, the competition venues and training areas. Most others will be outside the bubble and will be kept at a distance from the athletes.
Organizers announced a few days ago that fans from abroad will be banned from attending the Olympics and Paralympics. Most volunteers from abroad have also been ruled out.
Organizers are to announce the venue capacities in April. Ticket revenue for the Olympics was to be $800 million but will be severely reduced by the lack of fans. Japanese government entities will have to make up the shortfall.