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The Tokyo Olympics will be held behind closed doors if the outbreak worsens

Date: 2021-06-22

Attendees at Tokyo's Olympic venues are capped at 50 percent of capacity and no more than 10,000 people.

The maximum number of spectators at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium will be 50 percent and 10,000, according to a five-party consultation between representatives of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese government, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

The rules follow the government's new coronavirus measures to limit large-scale activities, the report said. However, Toshiro Muto, secretary-general of the organising committee, added that the 10,000 cap referred to ticketed spectators and did not include visitors from the IOC or overseas. He added that the total number of spectators for the opening ceremony would be 'significantly less than 20,000.'

About 42 per cent of tickets have been sold. Muto said a new lottery would be held for slots that exceeded the upper limit, indicating that the roughly 4.48 million tickets sold would be reduced to about 2.72 million because of the Games' postponements and a new lottery. He said the estimated 90 billion yen (about 5.3 billion yuan) in ticket revenue is expected to be cut by less than half, and it is necessary to negotiate with the Japanese government and the Tokyo metropolitan government about the reduction in revenue.

"The IOC fully supports the [cap] decision," IOC President Thomas Bach, who participated in the consultations online, stressed. Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, told a news conference that "the framework of the stage is complete," but added that "as long as the epidemic is not contained, we must also be prepared to be empty."

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also said, "Japan wants to host a reassuring Olympic Games, so it is natural that if the COVID-19 disease worsens, we will not let spectators in."

More than 10,000 athletes from 200 countries and regions will take part in the Tokyo Olympics, which will last for two weeks. There will be 43 venues, most of which are located within the Tokyo Capital Circle. The largest of these will be the new National Stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies, which can hold 68,000 spectators.

The Olympic Village in Haruhai, central Tokyo, will open on July 13. There are 21 apartments with a total of 3,800 residential units in the village. There are several kinds of bedrooms, the smallest is a double room, the largest can accommodate eight people. Athletes are fed three meals by a large dining hall on two floors that can seat up to 3,000 people at a time. Citing Japan's national anti-epidemic guidelines, the IOC restricts athletes from drinking alcohol in public, only in rooms.

The Japanese Olympic Committee on Tuesday issued a statement pointing out that Tokyo has been rid of the "state of emergency" is still a key area. If the outbreak escalates again, closed-door events will be considered.