Japan Bans Entry For Tokyo 2020

<p><em>Japan bans international spectators for Tokyo 2020<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that international spectators will be refused entry into Japan for this summer&&num;8217&semi;s Olympic and Paralympic Games&comma; the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee said in a statement on Saturday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Any tickets bought by overseas residents for the postponed Games&comma; scheduled to begin on July 23&comma; will be refunded&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The decision for Japan bans on spectators was taken following a virtual meeting between the &&num;8220&semi;Five Parties&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8212&semi; the International Olympic Committee &lpar;IOC&rpar;&comma; the International Paralympic Committee &lpar;IPC&rpar;&comma; the Tokyo Metropolitan Government &lpar;TMG&rpar;&comma; the Organizing Committee Tokyo 2020 and the Government of Japan &&num;8212&semi; with the IOC and IPC saying they &&num;8220&semi;fully respect and accept this conclusion&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Currently&comma; the COVID-19 situation in Japan and many other countries around the world is still very challenging and a number of variant strains have emerged&comma; whilst international travel remains severely restricted globally&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the statement read&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Based on the present situation of the pandemic &comma; it is highly unlikely that entry into Japan will be guaranteed this summer for people from overseas as <strong>Japan<&sol;strong> bans spectators&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;In order to give clarity to ticket holders living overseas and to enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage&comma; the parties on the Japanese side have come to the conclusion that they will not be able to enter into Japan at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Organizers say the decision will &&num;8220&semi;further contribute to ensure safe and secure Games for all participants and the Japanese public&&num;8221&semi; and it will not affect accredited Games participants&comma; who will be required to continue following the &&num;8220&semi;Tokyo 2020 Playbooks&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Organizers were forced to postpone the Olympics for the first time in the event&&num;8217&semi;s history in March 2020 due to the coronvairus pandemic&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Games are scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 8 and the Paralympics from August 24 to September 5&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Even though the number of coronavirus cases have been low in Japan compared to the US or the United Kingdom&comma; in recent months its health system has been overwhelmed by the worst wave of infections since the pandemic began&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The country only started inoculating its population of 126 million people with Pfizer-BioNTech shots at the end of February&comma; more than two months after the vaccine rolled out in other major countries&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Since the start of the pandemic&comma; Japan has recorded more than 455&comma;000 cases and 8&comma;794 deaths&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;On top of the Covid-19 complications orchestrating Japan bans on spectators&comma; both the Tokyo Olympics chief&comma; Yoshiro Mori&comma; and the Tokyo Olympics creative head&comma; Hiroshi Sasaki&comma; were forced to resign after making derogatory remarks about women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;