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Thousands of Olympics volunteers quit
Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have revealed 10,000 of the 80,000 volunteers scheduled to help have quit.
The CEO of the organizing committee, Toshiro Muto, believes the mass resignations won’t be “particularly problematic”, given the Games have been scaled back.
“There is no doubt that one of the reasons is the concern over coronavirus infections.”
“We cannot postpone again”
The Tokyo Olympics, which have already been postponed by a year, are due to start in 50 days.
There is overwhelming opposition in Japan to the Games going ahead. 80 percent of people in the country believing the major sports events shouldn’t take place this year.
Tokyo, and other parts of Japan, remain under a COVID-19 state of emergency, as Japan battles a fourth wave of infections.
The President of the organising committee has ruled out postponing the games again, insisting the event will be going ahead as is scheduled.
“We cannot postpone again,” Seiko Hashimoto told Nikkan Sports.
On Wednesday a top Japanese health adviser told a parliamentary committee that “it’s not normal to hold the Olympic Games in a situation like this”.
“If we are going to hold the Games under these circumstances … then I think it’s the Olympic organisers’ responsibility to downsize the scale of the event and strengthen coronavirus control measures as much as possible,” Shigeru Omi said.
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has previously said the Olympics will be a ‘safe and secure’ event.