Protesters demanding to cancel 2020 Olympics

Jun Oenoki, a leading member of the “Cancel the 2020 Olympic Disaster” group states “It’s never too late to call the Olympics off.”

With just 26 days left for the opening dates of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, protesters have demanded they be cancelled.

On Wednesday, a coalition of 15 organisations, including ‘Cancel the 2020 Olympic Disaster,’ intend to protest the Games in Tokyo. They want the sports event to be cancelled. Medical organisations have also expressed reservations about hosting it in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

The organisers revealed additional restrictions that spectators must follow. At the games, no booze, hugs, cheers, or signatures would be permitted. Toyko 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto warned that the celebrations will have to be stifled in order to keep the location secure.

The game’s chiefs agreed on Monday to let 10,000 supporters into the stadiums, although Hashimoto warns that the festival vibe would be different than in Europe.

One of the protesters Ikeda stated “What I want to say today is that it’s not too late to cancel. On the one hand, they are telling people not to go out too much, and to avoid contact with others, and on the other, they’re mobilising crowds for a national event. It is that whole system that I’ve come to denounce.”

Fans are forbidden from engaging with other attendees or cheering, and they are also required to go home as soon as the games end. At the games, it is also prohibited to convey vocal support for an athlete or to collect autographs.

The late decision to set a restriction on the number of attendees has caused some difficulty for the organisers. Despite the fact that over 3.6 million tickets were sold, organisers were obliged to hold a lottery to recoup almost 900,000 of them for events that exceeded the audience limit.

Nearly 200 protesters gathered in Tokyo on Wednesday evening to protest the games and demand that they be cancelled to prevent the virus from spreading.

Despite the fact that fewer Japanese individuals are opposed to the games, polls show that around half of the country still does not want the event to begin in a month.

Divyanshi Singh is an intern at The Independent SG /TISG