If you are looking forward to traveling to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics this year, you will need to change your mind.
The organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Games – which were delayed by one year due to the pandemic – announced on Saturday that international spectators of the Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games will be banned.
Referring to the restrictions on international travel, organizers said in a statement that there is no guarantee that Japan will allow international visitors to enter the country by the summer.
The decision to eliminate foreign fans is ‘to give clarity to cardholders living abroad and enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage’, the statement said.
Japan has banned most foreign access to the country as part of its COVID-19 restrictions, and has recently lifted a state of emergency in some provinces.
Tickets purchased abroad are refunded. According to organizers, 600,000 tickets were sold outside Japan.
There was speculation as to whether the committee would allow foreigners into the games in the months leading up to the announcement. Tokyo Committee President Seiko Hashimoto also hinted in early March that they would not do so.
That the matches would continue at all was controversial; a poll by the NHK earlier this year found that an overwhelming majority of Japanese want the matches to be canceled or postponed again.
“In many ways, the Tokyo 2020 Games will be completely different from any previous Games,” Hashimoto said in a statement on Saturday. “We are currently working on specific plans to share outside support and bring people together in ways that fit our current time.”
The postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games last year was the first time in the modern era that the timing of the Games was affected by an event other than war.
Organizers said it would still be called the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
To date, there have been more than 455,000 COVID-19 cases in Japan and 8,802 deaths. The explosion of the vaccine is still in its early stages, with only frontline workers being vaccinated. As of Saturday, Japan has administered 0.46 doses per 100 people.