By Rocky Swift and Sakura Murakami
“The government and the organising committee, including the IOC , keep saying they’re holding a safe Olympics. But everybody knows there is a risk. It’s 100 per cent impossible to have an Olympics with zero risk...of the spread of infection in Japan and also in other countries after the Olympics," the Times quoted Oshitani as telling the newspaper.
However, a former Olympian turned public health expert said she believed the Games can be pulled off with an acceptable level of risk. Japan has been spared the explosive outbreaks seen elsewhere but has recorded over 760,000 cases and more than 13,600 deaths. Tokyo and other regions are under a state of emergency as the nation battles a fourth wave which is straining hospitals.
Japanese Olympic Committee board member Kaori Yamaguchi, a judo bronze medallist at the 1988 Games, said on Friday Japan had been "cornered" into pressing ahead with the Games.