It has been almost eight years since Japanese people celebrated the return of the Olympic Games after the 1964 Olympics, but the journey to this point was full of challenges.
On March 24, 2020, Japan’s then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach agreed to delay the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics by one year due to Covid-19, four days after the Olympic flame, which was lit up in Olympia, Greece without spectators, arrived in Japan.
Sixteen months later, the coronavirus is still threatening the Games, with Tokyo put under its fourth state of emergency for the duration of the entire Olympic Games. On Thursday, Tokyo 2020 organisers reported 12 new positive Covid-19 cases related to the Olympics, including two infected foreign athletes in the athletes’ village, bringing the total number of Olympics-linked cases to 87 since July 1.
Consequently, the majority of the venues barred spectators from entering, with cheers and chants from…