“We are currently under a state of emergency in four prefectures and we are already unable to save the lives that we should be able to save,” Kenji Utsunomiya, a civil rights lawyer and three-time candidate for the office of Governor of Tokyo, told The Daily Beast. Utsunomiya is the organizer of an online petition calling for the halting of the Olympics, which has garnered a quarter of a million signatures in its first 48 hours online. “If we go ahead with the Olympics, we need to provide over 10,000 medical staff from an already overwhelmed medical system. The virus is continuing to spread and we won’t be able to protect the lives of our own people, and it could turn into a superspreader event,” he said. As the pandemic rages on, a poll published in the Japanese newspaper Asahi this month found that 83 percent of Japan’s population opposes holding the Olympics this year. Amongst the opposers are a range of local celebrities, including former yakuza boss turned philanthropist Satoru Takegaki.