Photo/Illutration Seiko Hashimoto, the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee chief, speaks at the committee's board meeting in Tokyo on June 8. (Pool)

Japanese authorities plan to strictly monitor the movements of foreign media coming to cover the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics using GPS to track their smartphones.

They hope to prevent the journalists from going out to places that they did not register to visit in advance, to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. 

The reporters' phones will be tracked for two weeks, beginning when they arrive in Japan.

The Tokyo organizing committee chief, Seiko Hashimoto, revealed her plan at the committee's board meeting on June 8.

She also said that their places of accommodation should be limited to facilities that can be supervised by the organizing committee and that they should not use private lodging services or spend nights at their friends’ houses.

The number of hotels where the foreign media will stay will be consolidated from more than 350 to 150.

Regarding medical staff required for the Games, Hashimoto said, “We already have the prospect that we can secure about 90 percent of the doctors and about 80 percent of the nurses.”

She added that the remaining personnel are also expected to be secured within this month.

The organizing committee has previously said that up to 230 doctors and 310 nurses would be required per day.

Sports doctors who applied to the committee's open recruitment call are expected to make up for the 10 percent shortfall in the number of doctors, she said.

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