Opinion on holding the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Japan 2021

In a survey conducted in July 2021 in Japan, 41 percent of respondents stated that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games should be canceled. 17 percent were in favor of holding the Games with low spectator numbers, while 40 percent spoke out for holding the Games without spectators, as was decided in the end by the Japanese government.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games financials

The Olympic Games is the biggest and possibly most anticipated sporting event in the world. Hosting it does not come cheap. In the case of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, the cost was planned to be shouldered by multiple entities. Following the Games’ one-year-long postponement, the fifth version of the revised budget for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics was released in December 2020, revealing the plan to further raise the budget by a few hundred billion Japanese yen. The new official cost for the Games surpassed the 1.6 trillion Japanese yen mark, more than double the size specified in the original draft.
With the advent of COVID-19, the Games became a financial liability. The postponement entailed increased financial burdens and depending on the future scenario awaiting the Games, the originally projected monetary gains might disappear altogether.

Shift of public opinion

A poll regarding the public opinion on the hosting of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in 2019 showed most people looking forward to the event, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a survey conducted in March 2020 suggested that the majority supported the decision to postpone the Games by one year. Roughly one year later the general attitude regarding the hosting of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics had shifted, showing hitherto lowest support by Japan's population. The Japanese government and other responsible organs went forth with the hosting of the Games. While the Games approached, public opinion shifted slowly in favor of holding of the Games, with close to 60 percent of respondents in the currently featured survey, dating from July 2021, approving in one way or the other the hosting of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.