The Tokyo Olympics 2020 men's football competition has reached a competitive level. Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and the host Japan have qualified for the semi-finals by eliminating their opponents in the quarter-finals. In terms of strength, Brazil and Spain will be the favorites to go to the final. However, Japan have been in good form since the beginning of the competition, while Mexico advanced to the last four by winning a goal-fest contest against South Korea in the quarter-finals. So their potential can't be ruled out. Who could proceed to the Tokyo Olympics 2020 men's football final is discussed in this article. Who are the Favorites to Advance to the Finals? 1st Semi-Final (Brazilvs.Mexico)  Venue: Ibaraki Kashima Stadium | Date: August 3 | Time (BST): 2 pm  Verdict: Brazil 2-0 Mexico  Brazil have been in excellent form since the start of the event. They are one of the favorites to win the gold medal in men's football at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Brazil have gone undefeated throughout the tournament and have performed well as a team. The team has a number of young promising players. The squad also includes renowned players like DaniAlves and Richarlison.Despite a hard-fought quarter-final victory against Egypt, they are favorites to beat Mexico in the semi-finals.  Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Men's Football Quarter-Finals Preview Mexico, on the other side, feel optimistic after defeating South Korea 6-3 in the quarter-finals. Mexico are now firmly believe that they can defeat Brazil in the semi-finals round. Football fans are anticipating a spectacular battle. Brazil’s expected starting XI Santos (GK), Guilherme Arana, DaniAlves, Diego Carlos, Nino, Bruno Guimarães, Matheus Cunha, Douglas Luiz, Richarlison, Antony, Claudinho Mexico’s expected starting XI Guillermo Ochoa (GK), Érick Aguirre, Jorge Sánchez, Johan Vásquez, César Montes, LuísRomo, Carlos Rodríguez, Francisco Córdova, Henry Martín, Diego Lainez, Alexis Vega Read England’s Bangladesh tour in jeopardy 2nd Semi-Final (Spain vs.Japan)  Venue: Saitama Stadium | Date: August 3 | Time (BST): 5 pm Verdict: Spain 2-1 Japan  Spain has formed a solid men's football team for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Spanish team has been doing well from the start of the tournament. They have a better defense than the other teams in the competition. That's why scoring against Spain is tough.Spain advanced to the semifinals by defeating Ivory Coast 5-2 in the quarterfinals. Spain will strive to earn a place in the final by playing their best football against the host Japan in the semi-final. Read: Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23-Aug 8 in 2021 Japan, on the other side, advanced to the semifinals after defeating New Zealand in a penalty shootout. Japan will have an edge because they are playing at home. This game should also be fascinating. Spain’s expected starting XI UnaiSimón (GK), Marc Cucurella, Óscar Gil, Pau Torres, Eric García, Martín Zubimendi, Carlos Soler, Marco Asensio, Pedri, Javier Puado, Mikel Oyarzabal Japan’s expected starting XI Kosei Tani (GK), Yuta Nakayama, Hiroki Sakai, Kou Itakura, Maya Yoshida, Takefusa Kubo, Ao Tanaka, Wataru Endo, Daichi Hayashi,Ritsu Doan, Yuki Soma Read Like father, like daughter: Gymnast vaults to bronze 25 years after father's silver Verdict According to the semi-finals schedule, Spain and Brazil are the two heavy favorites to qualify to the final of the men's football event at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. However, Japan and Mexico will do everything they can to upset the giants and secure a spot in the final. The best teams should advance to the championship match. The gold medal match of the event will take place at the International Yokohama Stadium on Saturday (August 7) at 5.30 pm (BST). Prior to that, the losers of the semi-final round will face off in a bronze medal match at Saitama Stadium on Friday (August 6) at 5 pm (BST).   Read At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound

Athlete Jahir Rayhan will compete in the heats of his lone event Men's 400-meter run of the Tokyo Olympics'202O at the Olympics Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday morning. He will compete in lane-2 of the event's heats number-3 at 8:O1 am (Bangladesh time) along with the athletes of USA, Brazil, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobacco, Slovenia and Congo. Jahir is keen to display his career best performance in his favourite 400-meter in the Bangladesh's last event in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.  He will be the 3rd Bangladeshi athlete to compete in 400-meter of the Olympics after 29 years after the participation of Mehdi Hasan in the Bercelona Olympics'1992 and Milzer Hossain in the Seoul Olympics in 1988. The present best timing of Jahir is 47.34 second. Earlier on last Friday, five Bangladeshi athletes out of  six--archer Ruman Shana, Diya Siddique, shooter Abdullah Hel Baki swimmers Ariful Islam and Junaina Ahmed-- completed their Tokyo Olympics assignments. Except shooter Baki, all the Bangladeshi athletes performed their best show in the mega games. Two Bangladeshi swimmers--M Ariful Islam and Junayna Ahmed were eliminated from their respective heats of the men's and women's 50-meter freestyle swimming of the Tokyo Olympics'2020 making their career best timings at Tokyo Aquatic Center on Friday. Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes Ariful Islam, who had the honour of carrying the Bangladesh national flag in the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, finished 3rd in heats number- 4 among eight competitors scoring his career best timing of 24.81 seconds. In the overall ranking, Ariful was placed 51st among 73 competitors of the event. His previous best timing of the event was 24.92 seconds made in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019. In the Women's 50- meter freestyle, Junayna Ahmed, a Bangladeshi origin London- based swimmer, finished 5th among eight swimmers in heats number 3 scoring her career best timing of 29.78 seconds. The overall ranking of Junayna in the event is 68th among 83 competitors. The previous best timing of Junaina Ahmed in the event was 30.96 second made in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019. Earlier Thursday, Bangladeshi promising teen-age archer Diya Siddique eliminated from the women's recurve singles after making a brilliant fight in shoot-off stage of Tokyo Olympics '2020 Archery at the Yumenoshima Park Archery field in the Japanese capital. Read: Olympics Archery: Diya Siddique eliminated from recurve singles in shoot-off The 17-year-old talented archer from Nilphamari District, Diya lost to her much superior opponent  Karyna Dziominskaya of Belarus by 5-6 set points  in a nerve shattering ups and downs elimination round match of the women 's recurve singles amid huge appreciations from games lovers. She made a good start beating her superior rival by 23-22 points in the first set, suffered 25-26 points defeat in the 2nd set, played 25-25 in the 3rd set, conceded 25-27 defeat in the 4th set and earned a 27-25 victory in the 5th set to tie the match 5-5 set points. Later, in the match fate-deciding shoot off, Diya, was miserably eliminated from the event in the very first attempt scoring 9 points against her opponent's score of 10 points. Earlier, Bangladesh’s famed shooter Abdullah Hel Baki was eliminated from the qualification round of his favourite Men's 10- meter Air Rifles of the Tokyo Olympics Shooting at the Asaka Shooting Range in the Japanese capital last Sunday. He finished 41st among the 47 competitors of the event making a worse total score of 619.8. Country's celebrated archer M Ruman Shana was eliminated from round of 32 of the men's recurve singles losing to his Canadian rival Duenas Chispin by 4-6 set points in a keenly contested match  last Tuesday. Ruman smartly advanced to the round-32 of the event eliminating Tom Hall of Great Britain by 7-3 set points in the elimination round Tuesday morning. On last Saturday, Bangladeshi archer Ruman Shana pairing with woman archer Diya Siddique lost to event's gold medalist South Korean pair An San and Kim Je Deok in the round-16 of the mixed team event (mixed doubles) of Olympics. The two Bangladeshi archers made a total score of 1297 to finish 16th and qualified for the round of 16 of the mixed team event. Ruman finished 17th among 64 competitors in the ranking round of recurve individual scoring 662 while Diya finished 36th among 64 participants in the ranking round making her career best score of 635.

The beloved American gymnast Sam Mikulak flipped off the parallel bars, stuck the landing and blew a kiss toward the camera. Those watching the men’s Olympics gymnastic competition on television back home knew they’d seen magic. “Beautiful!” the broadcast announcer exclaimed. “Wow, that was fantastic!” But all around Mikulak, the stretches of wooden benches meant to seat thousands sat mostly empty. Cheers erupted from a far back corner of the stands, where Simone Biles and the rest of the women’s team screamed as loud as lungs could muster to cut through the eerie quiet of the pandemic Olympic venue. Read: Pandemic Olympics endured heat, and now a typhoon's en route In arenas across Tokyo, athletes accustomed to feeding off the deafening roar of the crowd are searching for new ways to feel Olympic enthusiasm. They’re rooting for each other as loudly as they can. Some are trying to envision fans at home in their living rooms, leaning into TV screens. They’re blasting playlists in backstage training rooms. The lucky few permitted to compete with headphones keep their phones in their pockets, tuned to songs with a beat to replace the thrill of applause. But others were surprised to find the silence motivating — like another day at the gym rather than the most prestigious competition on Earth. For them, the emptiness numbs the nerves and lets them fully focus on their sport. “It’s kind of nice,” said Mikulak, a three-time Olympian whose parallel bar routine helped usher him to finals. It barely feels like an Olympics to him, he said, but when he stuck that landing and heard his own team cheering, that felt like enough. “We created our own bubble. We had our own cheering section,” he said. “We created our own atmosphere. That’s what we thrive in, having each other’s backs.” Read: Olympics Archery: Bangladesh eliminated from mixed team event The next day, they returned the favor. The US men’s gymnastics team stood in the back waving an American flag and screaming for their female counterparts before the stadium fell quiet again, like the others scattered across Tokyo. At the Sea Forest Waterway rowing venue, grandstands that stretch for nearly 2,000 meters (yards) are empty all the way to the finish line. The events are so quiet, rowers can hear the ripple of their own wake and the flap of hundreds of national flags whipping in the breeze on the shoreline. What is typically a swelling crescendo of chants and rush of adrenaline over the final 250 meters to the finish line replaced by the labored breathing wracking their lungs. “When you cross the line and you’re hurting, and you feel like you are going to pass out and you don’t hear the ‘USA! USA!’, chant it hurts a little bit more,” said ÚS women’s rower Ellen Tomek, competing in her third Olympics and reminding herself that people are rooting from her from home. “Everyone is cheering us on, but when you are hurting and sad and you can’t look up for you mom in the stands, it sucks.” Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes Other athletes, too, are trying to capture the energy of those fans at home, absent here but still somewhere in the world cheering them on. Japanese gymnast Mai Murakami said she was thrilled that her home country hosted the Olympics because she hoped many of her admirers could see her perform in person. When even Japanese citizens were barred from attending, she was devastated. “I get influence from the crowd, and that motivates me,” she said through a translator. The silence rattled her, she said, and she made a mistake in her bars performance. “This is my first experience without crowds, so I haven’t had that experience before. I couldn’t imagine how it would be, so I tried to have no emotion.” She tried to picture her fans watching on TVs and computers, applauding her from across the city. That brought comfort. Ágatha Bednarczuk, a Brazilian beach volleyball player, won a silver medal in front of her home country in 2016. This Olympics, she said, feels very different. “In Brazil, we had the biggest support. There were many, many people cheering for us, and here we had silence,” she said, drawing a flat line with her hand. “We need to put our emotion in the game, because we can’t receive emotion from them. For me, it’s very important to play with emotion so I had to bring it from inside.” Many say they are reminding themselves that they made it here — to the Olympics, a lifelong dream for many despite extraordinary odds including a pandemic that has killed millions and postponed the Games, and for a time threatened to sink them entirely. “I think that Olympic Games is enough of its own,” said Greece men’s water polo goaltender Emmanouil Zerdevas. “It’s a bit sad, but it is my first time in the Olympic Games, so I’m still happy to be here.” At the silent skateboarding venue, U.S. skater Jagger Eaton found a mood booster in the phone he occasionally fished out of his right pocket while competing to change the music. Skateboarders, unlike other athletes, are able to shut out the quiet by wearing headphones as they compete. Eaton chose the aptly named “Rollin N Controllin” by rapper Dusty Locane as his soundtrack to launch himself into the first-ever Olympic skateboard event, men’s street. “It got me right in the groove,” said Eaton, who struggled to skate for an empty crowd. “That’s why I am wearing headphones. When I wear headphones, I can create my own hype.” But others have been surprised to find peace in the silence — and a stronger connection to their sport than they tend to feel when the pressure is on. “Normally, coming into the finish line, when qualification is on the line, it’s deafening,” said U.S. women’s rower Michelle Sechser. “It’s the hardest part of the race. Your heart is pounding, your legs are pounding, your breathing is rapid. And it’s absolutely silent. It makes it almost like Nirvana.”

Two South African soccer players became the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, and other cases connected to the Tokyo Games were also confirmed Sunday, highlighting the herculean task organizers face to keep the virus contained while the world’s biggest sports event plays out. The positive tests came as some of the 11,000 athletes and thousands more team officials expected from across the globe began arriving, having traveled through a pandemic to get to Tokyo. Read: Tokyo's daily COVID-19 cases top 1000 for 3rd straight day They’ll all now live in close quarters in the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay over the next three weeks. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said last week there was “zero” risk of athletes passing on the virus to Japanese or other residents of the village. But that bold statement was already being tested. The Olympics, which were postponed for a year because of the pandemic, are set to officially open Friday and run until Aug. 8. The two soccer players and a team video analyst who also tested positive had been moved to “the Tokyo 2020 isolation facility,” the South African Olympic committee said. The rest of the squad members and officials had also been quarantined. Those positive tests further stoked local fears, with the South African team scheduled to play against host nation Japan in its first game on Thursday. Read: 6 athletes to represent Bangladesh in Tokyo Olympics There has already been consistent opposition from the Japanese public to holding the Olympics during the pandemic, with fears that it could become a super-spreader event and cause a spike in infections among Japanese people. Bach and the IOC have insisted it will be safe and have forged ahead against most medical advice. The IOC says it sees the Games as a chance to foster international solidarity during difficult times, but the IOC would also lose billions of dollars in broadcast rights if the Games were to be canceled completely. Also Sunday, Team South Africa confirmed the coach of its rugby sevens team also tested positive at a pre-Olympics training camp in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima. He was also in isolation there and would miss the entire rugby competition, the team said. And there were other Olympics-related positive tests. Olympic organizers said that another athlete had tested positive, although they were not residing in the Olympic Village. The athlete was not named and only identified as “non-Japanese.” The first International Olympic Committee official was reported as positive. He recorded a positive test on Saturday when arriving at a Tokyo airport. The IOC confirmed the test and identified him as IOC member Ryu Seung-min of South Korea. He was reportedly being held in isolation, too. Former distance runner and world championship bronze medalist Tegla Loroupe, the chief of mission of the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team, tested positive for COVID-19 before the team was to depart its Doha, Qatar, training base for Tokyo, two people with knowledge of her condition told the AP. The team delayed its arrival in Tokyo while Loroupe is expected to stay behind, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal medical information. Organizers say that 55 people linked to the Olympics in Japan have reported positive tests since July 1, but that figure does not include athletes or others who may have arrived for training camps but are not yet under the “jurisdiction” of the organizing committee. The British Olympic Association said six athletes and two staff in the track and field squad are isolating at the team’s pre-Olympic base in Yokohama after being deemed close contacts of a person who tested positive following their flight to Japan. U.S. tennis player Coco Gauff didn’t travel to Japan after testing positive for the coronavirus. Tokyo reported 1,008 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the 29th straight day that cases were higher than seven days previously. It was also the fifth straight day with more than 1,000 cases. The Olympics will open under a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures. No fans, Japanese or foreign, will be allowed at any of the Olympic sports in Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures. A few outlying venues may allow a small number of local fans, but it has effectively become a TV-only event. About 200 protesters gathered Sunday outside Shinjuku station in central Tokyo, waving signs that read “No Olympics.” It was the latest in a series of small protests against the Games in the last few months. “This is ignoring human rights and our right to life,” protester Karoi Todo told the AP. “Infections are increasing. To do the Olympics is unforgivable.” Japanese and IOC organizers hope stringent testing protocols, where athletes, team officials and others are tested daily, will mitigate the risks posed by the thousands of foreigners arriving at once. Visiting athletes, officials and media will be in a “soft quarantine” situation and restricted to the Olympic venues, the village and designated hotels, and will be kept away from the Japanese general public. The IOC also says more than 80% of the athletes set to compete in Tokyo will be vaccinated against COVID-19. But, despite the assurances, the positive tests five days out from the opening ceremony showed the regulations aren’t — and can’t be — foolproof. The South African team’s chief medical officer said every member of the team had two negative tests before traveling to Japan “as per Tokyo 2020 requirements.” They also tested negative on arrival in Tokyo, Dr. Phatho Zondi said. “Team officials and management have followed all relevant Olympic Playbook rules, protocols and procedures throughout the pre-Games and Games arrival routines,” the South African Olympic committee said. Coach Neil Powell and the entire South Africa rugby squad were held at a quarantine facility after arriving in Japan because of a positive COVID test on their flight, Team South Africa said. They were cleared to leave, only for Powell to test positive a few days later. Powell had been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in South Africa on May 24, team spokesman JJ Harmse told the AP. South African Olympic and soccer officials didn’t immediately confirm whether the two soccer players and official who tested positive had been vaccinated, although South Africa’s Olympic committee said in May it would offer all its Olympic athletes the J&J vaccine. The Olympics were effectively over before they began for the two soccer players and Powell as they would have to remain in quarantine for 14 days under Japanese regulations. The only way the soccer players might be able to play is if their team made the semifinals.

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.

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.”