Photo/Illutration Toshiro Muto, CEO of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, right, speaks during a news conference on April 21 in Tokyo. Seiko Hashimoto, president of Tokyo 2020, is at left. (pool)

The government has decided to declare a state of emergency for Tokyo, for the third time, amid a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections, only a month or so after the second state of emergency was lifted.

There is no end in sight to the scourge of the pandemic.

The dire situation is making many people doubt whether the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics can be held this summer as planned. Many are anxiously wondering if proceeding with the huge international event will only make things worse both at home and abroad.

The Japanese government, the Tokyo metropolitan government, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee, however, remain adamantly determined to hold the competitions. They are showing little interest in offering sincere responses to reasonable concerns and questions among citizens.

Let us ask them how they will differ from past Olympics and Paralympics and what kind of restrictions and requirements the athletes and spectators will face.

What must be done to make their plans work? What kind of benefits will society get from holding the event under such circumstances and what kind of burdens will it have to accept?

Asahi Shimbun editorials have repeatedly called on the governments, authorities and organizers involved to offer clear answers to these and other questions, provide the necessary information for people to form their own opinions and promote open debate on the issue tethered to the reality.

But what we have gotten from officials instead have been remarks based only on unwarranted optimism, such as, “We will carry out a safe event in a reassuring manner” or “the state of emergency will have no effect (on the plans).”

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and other top officials responsible for the matter have failed miserably in performing their roles as leaders.

The decision has been made not to accept foreign visitors coming to Japan to watch the Games. But it remains unclear how many athletes and Olympic executives will come from abroad and how they will move around in Japan.

If domestic spectators are allowed in, what kind of flows of people including volunteers will there be and at which locations? How many doctors and nurses will be needed at Olympic venues and is there a plausible plan to secure them? Will the mammoth international event affect in any negative way the nation’s efforts to bring the virus under control, including the vaccination program, and local health care services in general?

It is impossible for the public to be convinced of the decision to forge ahead with the Olympics unless people are given detailed explanations about it based on specific plans and objective data.

The organizing committee has said infections will be prevented without fail by conducting regular COVID-19 tests on participating athletes and officials and banning them from going out of the event venues and the Olympic village.

It is true that many international sports events have been held safely under this “test and quarantine” format. But the Olympics are far larger than other international sports events in terms of the numbers of participating countries and people.

There is also a new safety threat in the form of rapidly spreading new variants of the virus. If athletes catch the virus in Tokyo and bring it back to their countries, that would be an irreparable disaster.

It is also unclear who has the power and responsibility to make the final decisions concerning whether and how the event will be held and by when.

This should be immediately made clear. Uncertainty as to such key issues concerning the decision-making process will only deepen distrust among the public.

Given the tremendous effort the athletes, organizers and other people involved have made for the Olympics, we can sympathize with the desire to see the Olympic Torch lit.

But the Olympics must not be held at the cost of the lives and the health of the people. There must be no doubt about this.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 23

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