Talks between Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, has led to the confirmation of a decision to postpone the Tokyo Olympics until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The postponing of the 2020 Olympics that was set to take place in Tokyo, Japan is yet another blow to the third largest world economy beside the coronavirus pandemic that has sent many countries into economic recession.
Abe said they have established that canceling the Games is out of the question and that Bach has agreed “100%” that a postponement is the most appropriate response to the global disruption.
“We agreed that a postponement would be the best way to ensure that the athletes are in peak condition when they compete and to guarantee the safety of the spectators,” Abe told reporters shortly after his conference call with Bach, adding that the Games would be held by the summer of 2021.
According to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the coronavirus outbreak has tattered what was expected to have been a successful Olympic year.
According to sources who spoke to Reuters Abe has pledged at least $137 billion to combat the coronavirus. Some of that will be funded by new borrowing, despite Japan’s weak economic position.
Hiroshi Ugai, the chief economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan, told Reuters, “We’re now facing a very severe situation,” with 0.2%, 1.1 trillion yen ($10 billion), economic knockout on Japans economy from postponing the Games.