Some 85% of Japanese people approve of the decision to ban spectators from overseas access to the Tokyo Olympics, according to a poll released on Monday, as support for the Olympics, although weak, is increasing .
The Tokyo Games were originally scheduled to take place in 2020, but they have been postponed until this summer due to the pandemic.
On Saturday, due to health risks deemed too great, the Japanese authorities and Olympic officials took the unprecedented decision to exclude any public coming from abroad from the Games scheduled for the end of July.
The organizers themselves have called the move “disappointing” but “inevitable” as they attempt to organize the event safely.
A poll carried out by the Japanese daily Asahi on Saturday and Sunday revealed that 85% of those questioned thought that foreign spectators should be banned from entering the event, with only 11% believing that they should be allowed to attend.
The same poll also indicates that 27% of those polled think that the Games should be held this summer, while 36% think they should be postponed again and 33% that they should be canceled.
The poll, carried out on a sample of 1,564 people, asked them to choose between these three options, although the organizers of the Games rule out any further postponement.
The latest figures show that support for the Games is growing slowly in Japan. In January, a similar poll found that just 11% of those polled believed the Games were due this summer, up from 21% in February.
Another poll, carried out by the Kyodo news agency over the weekend, found that 23.2% of those polled thought the Games should take place as planned, while 39.8% would rather they be canceled.
Kyodo did not say whether these were the only options offered to those interviewed. The survey was carried out on a sample of 1,054 people.