Tokyo 2020: Hundreds gather outside Olympic Stadium to protest

It is no secret that a very large number of people were strongly against the Olympics being held this year in the Japanese capital of Tokyo amid what is a devastating pandemic. Several surveys in the city suggested that the majority of the residents of Tokyo wanted the Olympics to either be postponed or be cancelled entirely. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and local organizers of the Games gave their assurances that they will have several safety measures in place to check the spread of COVID and also deal with it should any of the athletes or staff test positive. There have been a few positive cases even before the Games began. As the opening ceremony kicked off on Friday, hundreds gathered outside the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo to protest against the Games.

While no fans were allowed into the stadium, hundreds flooded the street outside the stadium. They, however, were not there to show support to The Games or their nation. They were there to protest the Games altogether. Images surfaced showing a crowd of protestors covering nearly the entirety of a street that runs along the western part of the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. The city police had to separate the dissenters from the stadium with metal barricades.

While some of the people gathered outside the stadium actually just came to witness the fireworks from the opening ceremony, the number of people that were against the Games exceeded them. A large number of protestors were gathered in front of a clothing store across the street from the southwestern corner of the stadium. Here, the protesters made use of microphones to shout slogans throughout the entire first hour of the opening ceremony.

The protest might be seen as an inconvenience by the organizers of The Games, and maybe even some athletes, but what it really is, is a reminder. No matter how grand the opening ceremony might have been, or how many precautionary measures the organizers were taking, the Games this year are still being hosted amidst a deadly pandemic. There is no getting away from that fact.

What makes it worse is the venue. Japan has not had the best of times dealing with the virus. Their population, which includes a very large number of people over the age of 60, is quite vulnerable to the disease should an uncontrollable spread come to pass. Tokyo, along with several other prefectures in the country, has been in a state of emergency due to the pandemic for several months now.

Public polls in Tokyo and Japan as a whole also suggested that the majority of the nation was against the Olympics this year. In a poll that was conducted by Japanese news organization Kyodo News as recently as last week, 87% of respondents expressed concern about hosting the Olympics during a pandemic. 31.2% of them wanted the Olympics to be cancelled altogether.