Over 30% of Japanese people want Tokyo Games cancelled

TOKYO: A latest opinion poll has shown that more than 30 percent of respondents think the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games should be cancelled.

The telephone survey, conducted by the Japanese state broadcaster NHK last weekend, received answers from more than 1,200 people, who were asked whether they think the Olympic and Paralympic Games should be held in 2021.

Twenty-seven percent of them said the Games should be staged, 32 per cent said they should be cancelled, and 31 per cent said they should be postponed further, NHK said.

In a poll conducted in October, 40 per cent of respondents had said the Games should be held, 23 per cent said they should be cancelled, and 25 per cent said they should be postponed.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has promised that his government is determined to hold a "safe and secure" Olympic Games next year.

The Tokyo Olympics, which were slated to be held in July-August this year, had to be postponed to summer of 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Japan is suffering a third wave of Covid-19 pandemic, with 1,677 new confirmed cases reported on Monday. Tokyo, the hardest hit by the virus among Japan's 47 prefectures, confirmed 305 new cases on Monday. IANS

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