By allowing the Olympics to go ahead, the Japanese government could endanger people’s lives.
The country is lagging far behind when it comes to vaccinating the population against the coronavirus. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of the Japanese tech investor SoftBank, said this on Twitter.
The low vaccination coverage could be dangerous if 100,000 people from 200 countries visit Japan during the Games at the end of July, he says. “At the moment, more than 80 percent of the Japanese want the Olympics to be postponed or cancelled.
What authority does it impose on?” The influential billionaire wrote on Twitter in Japanese last weekend. “Does the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have the power to decide that the Games go ahead?”
The government started a major vaccination campaign on Monday to catch up, with help from the military. At present, 4.4 percent of the population has been vaccinated. That is the lowest percentage of any major developed country.
According to opinion polls, there is strong opposition to the Olympics going ahead, but the number of public protests has been limited. Most of the country is still under a state of emergency to contain the fourth wave of the coronavirus.