Japan‘s Asahi Shimbun newspaper, an official partner of the Tokyo Olympics, called for the Games to be cancelled in an editorial on Wednesday, citing risks to public safety and strains on the medical system from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Polls have shown the majority of the Japanese public are opposed to holding the Games this summer, concerned about tens of thousands of athletes and officials descending on a country that has mostly remained closed to foreigners since last year and where vaccinations have proceeded slowly.
Doctors’ associations have protested holding the Games, investors have talked up the benefits of shelving them, and businessmen have also called for the Olympics to be cancelled.
That Asahi, one of Japan’s most prestigious newspapers, broke ranks with other partners is likely to intensify focus on the viability of the Games.
“We cannot think it’s rational to host the Olympics in the city this summer,” the newspaper said in its editorial under a headline that read: “We Demand PM Suga Decide Cancellation.”
“Distrust and backlash against the reckless national government, Tokyo government and stakeholders in the Olympics are nothing but escalating,” the editorial added.
“We ask Prime Minister (Yoshihide) Suga to calmly and objectively assess the situation and decide on the cancellation of the event this summer,” said the paper, a left-leaning daily often critical of Suga’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
“We are far from a situation in which everybody can be confident they will be ‘safe and secure’. Sadly, that is not the reality.”
Several of Japan’s other major dailies, such as the Nikkei, the Mainichi and the Yomiuri, are also Tokyo 2020 official partners. The Asahi’s editorial was widely shared on social media, garnering more than 30,000 tweets by Wednesday morning.