Suga can't pass the buck to the IOC

With less than three months to go before the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics are due to start, a heated discussion is underway in the host country on whether the event should be adjourned again or canceled.

Reportedly, a letter calling for canceling the Games has collected more than 300,000 signatures in five days in Japan. And the latest poll shows that about 59 percent of the surveyed hope that the Games can be postponed again or called off.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reportedly told a budget meeting with lawmakers on Monday: "I have never put the Olympics first", adding that his priority has been to protect the lives and health of the Japanese population.

This is the first time Tokyo has put a damper on the Olympics. Tokyo and the International Olympic Committee have kept close communication and cooperation for years, and have previously asserted that they are committed to holding the event from July 23 to Aug 8 and outlining a series of pandemic prevention and control measures.

But in the face of a resurgence of the pandemic at home since last month, the Suga administration has no choice but to deny the Olympics is a priority.

Over the past week, the number of new infections appearing each day in the country has exceeded 6,000 for three days in a row. Only 2.2 percent of its 126 million population has taken at least one jab of a vaccine so far, the lowest among the developed countries, not because of the lack of vaccines, but the shortage of medical workers.

Yet anyone familiar with the Japanese political discourse should know that saying that he has "never put the Olympics first" does not mean Suga has changed his attitude toward the event for which the country has been preparing for years, not least because holding the event can help Japan minimize its economic losses due to the pandemic.

Notably, he also insisted in the aforementioned meeting that the IOC has the final say over whether the Tokyo event proceeds. Apparently, the IOC does not want to call off the event, not only for economic reasons. IOC officials have expressed their ardent support for the Tokyo Olympics through various means recently, leaving no doubt that they believe that the event can and should be held as agreed.

So the ball Suga passed to the court of the IOC will be hit back. Suga should realize that the Olympic Games are a global event that the world desperately needs to help heal its wounds and stay united.

Instead of using political rhetoric to let the International Olympic Committee share the pressure of public opinion, the Japanese government needs to do a good job of epidemic prevention and control.