Coates insists no discussion of postponing or cancelling Tokyo Games

Coates, who spoke with former Japanese Prime Minister and Tokyo 2021 organising committee president Yoshiro Mori on Thursday, told the Herald and The Age the Olympics were still on track to be held this year with or without crowds.

“We’re meeting with them on operational matters now as we move closer to the games. Then weekly we have, including last night, a meeting at the CEO level. And every few weeks we have a private chat to President Mori,” Coates, who is also the Tokyo 2020 coordination commission chair, said.

“They’re proceeding fully and Thomas Bach had a briefing of all the IOC members last night which was planned before Christmas and he’s doing the NOC [National Olympic Committee] presidents tonight. That was the message he and I gave.

“We won’t know until March, April or May how many spectators we can have. They should leave that as late as possible to see as they move out of summer the impact of the counter-measures they have now.”

The report also indicated that Tokyo organisers and the Japanese government had turned their attention to securing the next available Games - to be staged in 2032 - as consolation for losing the already-postponed event, but Coates said that too was untrue.

“There’s been no discussion on that at all,” he said. “There is no discussion on 2032 with Japan because there is no discussion on not proceeding in Japan.

“Our biggest thing at the moment is to make sure the Japanese public are kept safe. They’ve got access to twice the number of [vaccine] doses than their population from three companies starting this month. So a lot of the decisions on venue capacity can be deferred to see the effect of that and the effect of the rollout around the world.“

Coates said the policy of the IOC and the AOC was not to put the athletes ahead of healthcare workers, the elderly and the sick in the queue for a COVID-19 vaccine.

“I’m aware that in some countries governments have committed to help the athletes [such as] Romania. Some of the NBA players [in the United States] are being vaccinated. We’re expecting people in the [English] Premier League will be vaccinated. We’re not expecting that here. We’re just hoping that they roll it out in sufficient time so that there wil be availability for two doses to go to our athletes before they go.”

The Games have been beset by rising political partisanship and unpopularity in Japan. A poll by national broadcaster NHK in December found only 27 per cent of the public supported hosting the Games. The poll was taken before a winter coronavirus surge saw Japan hit an average of more than 6000 cases a day this week. The country recorded 100 deaths per day for the first time on Tuesday.

Japan’s opposition parties have seized on the public’s hostility leading to rising political pressure within Suga’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yukio Edano, said on Thursday that it was “irresponsible to keep moving forward based only on wishful thinking”.

“We should batten down the hatches,” he said.

Suga declared a state of emergency in Tokyo on January 7, asked restaurants to close early and urged people to avoid non-essential travel as hospital wards moved towards capacity. The Japanese government is aiming to vaccinate most of the population by July but has yet to begin the program, which will target the vulnerable and the elderly first.

Taro Kono, the minister responsible for the rollout on Wednesday hosed down reports that the general public would receive shots in May, two months out from the start of the Games. “I will do my best so that more people can get safe and effective vaccines at the earliest possible date,” he said.