Tokyo Olympics 2020: Organizers are securing the venues for next year event, local media reports say

by Shatakshi Gupta

On Thursday, different media houses of Japan reported that organisers of Tokyo Olympics are expected to be able to use all the venues as initially planned for the next year rearranged Games.

Due to COVID-19 Pandemic, the games were postponed till next year, the top priority of the organisers was to Secure venues for these delayed games.

Masa Takaya, the spokesperson of the Tokyo 2020 said at the regular weekly news conference that these reports are very optimistic but nothing had been announced formally yet.

Also read: Tokyo Olympics 2020 Has Postponed Amid Coronavirus Spread

He said: “We have seen a series of media reports concerning the status of securing venues for the Games in 2021.”

“The organising committee has not made such an announcement at this stage and during this process, it is very unfortunate to see such reports based on this optimistic view,” he added.

Masa said that Tokyo 2020 committee is well aware of such kind of reports, but he cleared that neither the Tokyo organizing committee nor the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has made any formal announcement.

Also read: Tokyo Olympics 2021 to be held from July 23 to August 8

Toshiro Muto, the CEO of Tokyo 2020 had said earlier that  80% of all required venues had been secured, remaining are yet to be secured.

Latest media reports also reported the schedule of competition would remain largely same, also that all the existing tickets holders would be eligible for a refund. On July 17, IOC’s General Assembly on 17 July will decide on these matters.

However, the people of Tokyo are expecting something different. Recently, a survey was carried out by Kyodo News and the Tokyo MX television channel, regarding the views of people on the event.

The survey found that 51.7 per cent of people want the Olympics to be postponed further or cancelled against 46.3 per cent of those who want the re-scheduled Tokyo 2020 to take place as planned.

Out of these 51.7 per cent, 24 per cent want the second postponement. Whereas, 27.7 per cent people want complete cancellation.

If we talk about those who are backing the next year event, 31.1 per cent of them out of 46.3 per cent said that the event should take place in a lesser grand form. However, 15.2 per cent find it perfectly fine the way it is planned.