Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as Japan battles to stem a COVID-19 contagion amid mounting concerns that the Tokyo Olympics could be canceled.
Abe’s call came after a Tokyo baseball team said that it would play games in an empty stadium this weekend, while two businesses in central Tokyo reported confirmed cases of infection one day after the government had urged companies to encourage staff to work from home or stagger commutes.
“Taking into account that the next one to two weeks are extremely important in stopping the spread of infection, the government considers there to be a large risk of transmission at sports, cultural events and large gatherings of people,” Abe said.
The Yomiuri Giants said that they would stage pre-season baseball games versus cross-town rivals the Yakult Swallows at the Tokyo Dome, but with no fans in the building.
Located in the central Bunkyo ward, the stadium can seat more than 40,000 spectators.
The growing shadow over the Olympics came as Dentsu Group, an advertising giant deeply involved in the Games, told employees to work from home after a confirmed coronavirus case at its central Tokyo headquarters.
In another confirmed case, property developer Mitsubishi Estate said that one of its skyscrapers in the Marunouchi business district had been visited by a person with the virus.
Japan’s government has shifted strategy in fighting the contagion, seeking to slow its expansion and minimize the number of deaths rather than stopping it completely, now seen as impossible.
Earlier yesterday, Japanese Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Seiko Hashimoto sought to quell fears that the Tokyo Games could be canceled.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound on Tuesday said that the Games would more likely be canceled than postponed or moved should the virus threat enforce any change in schedule, the Associated Press reported, with a decision necessary by May.
“The IOC is preparing for the Tokyo Games as scheduled,” Hashimoto told the Diet when asked about Pound’s comment. “We will continue our preparations so that the IOC can make sound decisions.”
In a briefing with reporters, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that he had been told by the IOC that Pound’s comment that any cancelation decision would be made in May was not the committee’s official stance.
Officials have consistently denied that the Olympics would be postponed or canceled, but Tokyo has been forced to postpone training for volunteers, with large-scale gatherings like next month’s Tokyo Marathon already voluntarily curtailed or halted altogether.
The IOC does have something that could cushion the blow in case of cancelation: a US$897 million reserve fund to help finance global sports.
The fund was established as a backstop for international sports federations that rely on the committee to balance their budgets, said Pound, the IOC’s longest-serving member.
That is not soccer or basketball, but smaller sports like judo, volleyball and water polo.
Part of the IOC’s broader risk management strategy, the fund was established in 2001 with US$105 million. It had grown to US$422 million by 2008.
“It’s a significant number, and would keep all the balls in the air if we actually missed a Games,” Pound said in an interview.
“The preparations for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 continue as planned,” the IOC said in a statement. “Countermeasures against infectious diseases constitute an important part of Tokyo 2020’s plans to host a safe and secure games.”
The committee said that it has full confidence that the authorities, “in particular in Japan and China, will take all the necessary measures to address the situation.”
The IOC made US$5.7 billion in its last four-year Olympic cycle, which included the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea. Of that total, 73 percent came from broadcast rights and 18 percent from top-level sponsors.
That money goes in part toward mounting the Olympic Games, and in part to national and international governing bodies to help fund athletes worldwide.
For example, the IOC distributed US$540 million to international federations and another US$540 million to national Olympic committees for the Rio Games.
The reserve fund is just part of the IOC’s risk management stores. The organization also has US$647 million in assets set aside from TV money, in case it needs to refund parts of those contracts; US$261 million to cover deficits in its main sponsorship program; and US$447 million to help cover distribution to national Olympic bodies.
Pound, who has been an IOC member since 1978, but is not involved in day-to-day management, said that the organization is not in any immediate rush to make a decision on the Games.
“This is the most dangerous threat to the Olympics other than a state of actual war,” Pound said. “This is the new war scenario.”
Separately, the Japan Sumo Association told reporters that a board meeting would be held on Sunday to discuss whether to proceed with its spring tournament, which is due to start in Osaka on March 8.
Japan’s professional soccer league has already called off all domestic games through the first half of next month.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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