TOKYO, July 15, 2021—Calls for suspending the controversial, no-Tokyoite-Want Olympic games grew July 15 when Tokyo’s Covid-19 infections soared 46 percent over a week ago to a new record 1,309 cases as a lawyer submitted as many as 450,000 signatures of Japanese demanding the scrapping of the games. The day was also punctuated by a reporter’s shouting at International Olympic Committee chairman Thomas Bach: ‘Bach, You’re (a) liar! Airport is dangerous! (The Olympic athletes’) Bubble is broken!’
The Tokyo City Office July 15 afternoon announced as many as 1,309 Covid-19 infections, up 412 over 896 on July 8, or a rise of 45.9 percent. The weekly daily average as of July 15 was 882, up 32.9 percent. Medical experts, including Shigeru Omi, the chair of the government’s Covid committee, today warned that wearing the mask, hand-washing and other passive sanitary means have run the course, and he predicted that cases now are poised to grow sharply as people’s moves are becoming more rapid in tandem with the Olympic games. Scientists now predict that cases would shoot through 2,000-3,000 during the games, which start July 23.
Kenji Utsunomiya, chair of the Japan bar association federation, today said at a news conference that he had submitted 451,867 signatures of people who are demanding calling off the games immediately. He said Japanese prime minister Suga’s recent remarks that the games are meant to be proof of human’s overcoming of the Covid-19 pandemic are totally false and forcing to hold the games would arbitrarily cause infection spikes. The campaign’s website is change.org.
As IOC’s Bach was presenting a bouquet of flowers to Tokyo governor yuriko koike at a ceremony at the Tokyo city office July 15, an unidentified reporter shouted to Bach: ‘Bach, You’re (a) liar! Airport is dangerous! (The Olympic athletes’) Bubble is broken!,’ according to Japanese and foreign media reports.
It was a second incident for Bach following one of his own making at the Tokyo Olympic organization committee July 13 by addressing the Japanese people as Chinese.
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