TOKYO—Volunteers from abroad will not be allowed into Japan for the postponed Tokyo Olympics, organizers said Monday.
The announcement came two days after Tokyo organizers said they would ban international fans from coming into Japan. Both measures are aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19.
Organizers said a limited number of volunteers might be allowed if they have special skills.
“I’m really sorry, but we have decided there is no other choice but to drop the plan,” said Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the organizing committee.
Organizers had planned to use about 80,000 unpaid volunteers. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government had lined up 30,000 more. Most, of course, are from Japan. It’s not clear how many will be needed with few overseas fans in attendance.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency, quoting “sources close to the matter,” said around 500 overseas volunteers would be given exemptions to enter Japan.
The Olympics are to open on July 23 with 11,000 athletes, followed by the Paralympics on August 24 with 4,400 more. Athletes will operate inside a bubble, a plan that calls for limited contact with outsiders.
The first big test for the Olympics begins Thursday with the torch relay starting from northeastern Japan. The relay will last 121 days, involve 10,000 runners, and end at the opening ceremony in Tokyo’s new National Stadium.
$67M ON TECHNOLOGY FOR ABSENT FANS?
JAPAN’S top telecommunications company is getting 7.3 billion yen—about $67 million—in taxpayers’ money to design mobile tracking software to curb the spread of coronavirus infections during the Olympics.
There’s one catch: Few Olympic fans from abroad will be around to use it.
NTT Communications Corp., a group company of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and a domestic sponsor of the Tokyo Games, heads the consortium developing the app in multiple languages that is set for release in June.
Domestic sponsors have contributed a record of $3.5 billion to the local organizing committee, a total about three times larger than any previous Olympics. Contributions have been driven by giant marketing company Dentsu Inc., the official marketing partner of the Tokyo Olympics.
Like other skeptics, opposition lawmaker Kanako Otsuji has said the app is a waste of money.
“When there will likely be no spectators, is this the time to be designing an app for fans? The Japanese government has failed over and over in digital innovation, but it’s going to have success with this new app?” she said on her YouTube channel last month.
Users are to download the app in their cell phones so their whereabouts can be monitored with satellite technology.
In theory, it tracks infections. But it all must be done in good faith and is effective only if people use it honestly and diligently to record their health conditions and warn others of outbreaks.
The NTT app costs nearly 20 times as much as an earlier glitch-plagued tracking app, called Cocoa, for “Covid-19 Contact Confirming Application,” offered free to the Japanese public last year.
Japan now restricts people from entering the country because of the coronavirus pandemic, except for some essential travel and returning citizens.
NTT Communications declined comment, referring queries to the government.
Tokyo-based NTT, founded in 1952, has boasted of close ties with the Japanese government. It’s now embroiled in a sprawling corruption scandal centered around lavishing entertainment on ministry bureaucrats that oversee telecommunications.
Tokyo is officially spending $15.4 billion to prepare for the Olympics, but several government audits have suggested it’s at least $25 billion. All but $6.7 billion is public money.
While the pandemic has added to the costs, there will be few tourists to boost local coffers.
In 2019, the year before the pandemic hit, Japan raked in a record 4.8 trillion yen ($44 billion) from nearly 31.9 million tourists visiting from overseas, mostly from China and South Korea.
In contrast, international travelers to Japan last year, including foreign residents and families of Japanese, dwindled to 4.1 million people, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. No money figure was available. Domestic tourism has also fallen to about half the previous year’s levels.
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