Filled with doubt, division and COVID, Tokyo braces for Olympics

As opinion polls showed that most Japanese either wanted the Games to be delayed by another year or called off altogether, the IOC juggernaut simply rolled on, aided by local organisers and, in Yoshihide Suga, a prime minister who practically conceded he was powerless to apply the brakes. Now that it seems there is no alternative to the planned 23 July start, the Olympic movement is about to preside over a Games with no precedent. With Tokyo now experiencing a fifth wave of infections, prompting deeply unpopular restrictions on eating out that will remain in place until well after the Olympics, all but a handful of events will be held behind closed doors. The capital’s residents now find themselves in the unenviable position of being asked by government officials to follow on TV an event they helped fund, and during a state of emergency necessitated by an Olympics most of them don’t want.