Japanese officials confirmed Tuesday that, as expected, overseas visitors will not be allowed to visit Japan and attend the postponed-from-2020 Olympics starting in July. The ban will also apply to the Paralympics which follow.
The government has concluded that welcoming fans from abroad is not possible given concerns among the Japanese public over the coronavirus and the fact that more contagious variants have been detected in many countries, according to the Kyodo News Agency.
A decision on how many Japanese spectators will be allowed at the various events will be made in April. In the meantime, the Japan Olympic Committee will meet with the International Olympic Committee to formalize the decision.
A few remaining questions will need to be resolved, including a mechanism for refunding most of the nearly nine million tickets sold to somewhere over a million would-be spectators. The tickets were sold before last year’s postponement, and about 810,000 refund requests have been received.
