Well-Being Longevity

With roughly 2 percent of Japan vaccinated, pressure to cancel Olympics intensifies

by Alexandra Kelley | May 10, 2021 | May. 10, 2021

coronavirus COVID-19 community spread tokyo olympics 2020 games poll cancel favor majority postpone vaccine rate low spike outbreak
A couple walks past a poster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics along a street in Tokyo on May 10, 2021.

Story at a glance

  • A majority of Japanese citizens said they do not want the 2020 Olympics to commence.
  • The games are slated to be held in Tokyo and will run from the end of July to early August.
  • The vaccination rate in Japan is relatively low as cases have been spiking.

    • The upcoming Tokyo Games have met a roadblock in public opinion, with a new poll suggesting that roughly 60 percent of Japan’s residents would like the games to be canceled again.

    Based on data gathered by the paper Yomiuri Shimbun daily, 59 percent of respondents said they would like the games to be canceled, whereas 39 percent said that they should go on as planned.

    Twenty-three percent of respondents who indicated the games should commence said that they should occur without spectators present. 

    The games are set to run from July 23 to Aug. 8.

    Current data from the World Health Organization indicates that there have been more than 7,000 new cases reported in Japan as of May 10.  

    Reuters notes that Olympic Games official John Coates said on Saturday that the Japanese sentiment regarding the games “was a concern,” but still anticipates thegGames to move ahead.

    The vaccination rate in the country is also relatively low. While the WHO counts about 3.5 million vaccine doses having been administered, this amounts to just 2.76 doses per 100 people. 

    Bloomberg vaccination data reports that just 1.7 percent of Japan’s population has been vaccinated, as opposed to 40.4 percent in the U.S. and 4 percent in South Korea. 

    The 2020 Olympics were previously supposed to be held in Tokyo but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    Nearly a year later, Japan is experiencing upticks in both new cases and deaths, with Tokyo itself being placed under a state of emergency. 

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