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Olympic Games will be held, despite prevailing COVID-19 pandemic! Why?
No explanation from the Prime Minister.

While the number of newly infected people of COVID-19 had not decreased sufficiently and there were concerns about rebound, the government decided to lift the State of Emergency and to shift to Pre-emergency Measures from June 20 in some prefectures such as Tokyo. At the same time, it was tentatively decided that the Olympic Games will be held with a maximum of 10,000 spectators, which is half the capacity of the stadium. However, at the opening ceremony, spectators will be limited to 10,000 according to this rule, but it seems that nearly 20,000 people will be present in the National Stadium from the organizers in addition to the athletes.

I have been confused by the behavior of government or more accurately by the irresponsible attitude of Japanese politicians. They do not try to explain to the people or persuade the people about the contents of the policy at all. It seems to me that they only insist that they are not responsible, therefore not guilty. This is their basic stance when facing the people. At the time of Prime Minister Abe, I strongly felt this. But now I cannot help laughing when I hear the rigid android-like blah blah blah of Prime Minister Suga.

Do we really need Olympic now?
They want it!

In the first place, the candidacy for the Olympic Games 2020 was not supported from the outset by the majority of Japanese people as it was in 1964. Popular professional sports have better occasions to watch than Olympics. Soccer, one of favorite professional sports in Japan, is much more interesting in European professional leagues and the World Cup. The mecca of professional Baseball is, of course, the Major League in the United States. In other popular professional sports genres such as golf and tennis, many Japanese are enthusiastic about the success of

Japanese players in major overseas games. Sumo, which is a traditional sport-cum-ritual born in Japan, attracts powerful people from all over the world to the professional Sumo league of Japan. Judo on the other hand has become a major departure from the original spirit because it has been "internationalized" through the Olympic Games.

Anyone with some understanding is well aware that the recent Olympics are stained with money. They wonder why Japan, which is suffering from a heavy budget deficit, is to be obliged to invest precious tax money in building excessive luxury facilities for the Olympic Games. The investment in the Olympic Games has by now reached 1.64 trillion yen (ca.$15billion). That much money could have been used for even more meaningful purposes. And now, Corona pandemic became a big problem for the Olympic Games.

With so many problems both inside and outside Japan, why did we invite the Olympics and why do we try to follow the default route during this pandemic? Shintaro Ishihara, the then Governor of Tokyo announced the candidacy for the Olympics for his personal ambition. The former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was the chairman of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee and contributed to the expansion of the original plan as boss of the political world. They were the war criminals No.1 and No.2. The Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the war criminal No.3, tries to run through the rails mistakenly laid by them in an unprecedented situation of the spread of COVID-19. In a sense those three gentlemen well understand the essence of Olympics.

Recently, the Chief of the Imperial Household Agency explained to the press that he suspects His Majesty the Emperor is worried about hosting the Olympic Games amid the prevalence of COVID-19. The worry is well founded, I believe. He was born to bear our nation as future Emperor, therefore is not moved by strange political ambitions and is sincerely and honestly thinking for the Japanese people. I was much impressed by his gracious thoughts.

Politicians only say, they are not responsible nor guilty. They just implement what others want!

The current biggest problem with the Prime Minister Suga and the LDP leaders is that they do not carry out policies with transparency and responsibility. They should make clear decisions, explain them to the people, persuade the people, implement them, and take responsibility for them. Instead of just reading the bureaucratic sentences, the leaders should with their own words call for the cooperation of the people to prevent both the loss of life and the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic at the same time. They have totally failed to do that. I want to ask the Prime Minister what are a politician and a Prime Minister for him. The current situation is reminiscent of the irresponsible system and dysfunction of militaristic Japan, which began with the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War sly and could not be ended even if the uncountable lives were lost.

There is no explanation to the public when and why the final decision was made to host the Olympic Games this summer, which was opposed by more than 80% of the population in mid-May. Prime Minister Suga escaped in a parliamentary response on June 7 when asked if he would choose to cancel when the preconditions for the event, such as the corona infection, were broken, saying he was not the organizer of the Olympics. Did he want to say that the IOC is responsible for the event and not himself? Nevertheless, Prime Minister Suga requested the leaders attending the G7 Summit on June 13th to support the

holding of the Olympic Games. Taking advantage of the established fact that the Olympic Games were supported by the world leaders, he pushed for the event. It is as if the responsibility for hosting the Olympic Games rests on the request from G7 and the responsibility for the lives of the Japanese people would be taken by the participating leaders other than Japan along with the IOC. It seems that the Japanese government is only responsible for implementing external instructions.

Their expectation that if they have made a fait accompli public opinion will follow, has proven true. The public opinion opposing the Olympics has decreased sharply in June, falling below 50%, and public opinion is heading toward no audience or limited number of spectators. Their silent tactics was successful indeed!

When introducing or canceling the State of Emergency, the Prime Minister and the ministers in charge always say that they follow the assessments by experts and they thus impose responsibility on the experts. Despite this, when Dr. Omi and other volunteers of the New Corona Virus Infection Control Subcommittee announced their opinion that the government needs to take stronger measures for the Olympic Games than for regular sporting events to prevent the spread of the infection, the Prime Minister and other LDP leaders simply neglected it saying that it represents only the opinion of a part of experts and others might think other ways. In short, I want to say that LDP politicians only have the calculation of money in their heads. And that is exactly what the current Olympics are like.

Important policy issues are neglected. “Great positions” are their goals per se.

I cannot but think that the most Japanese politicians do not care to lead this country to the future. Their ultimate goal is to take on the "great positions" such as Prime Minister and try to sit in that chair for a long time and profits from there. Well, if you say that's something you've known for a long time, you're right. I don't think it's a bad thing to wish to acquire "great positions", because it enables them to realize their ideas. But if they have no ideas, "great positions" are just for their personal merits. Needless to say, but politicians should always think about the future of this country and consider what kind of policies should be taken for that purpose? It's a shame that they do not seem to think about that at all.

Policy issues that I am concerned about are, for example, the accumulated debt of the government and the continuation of nuclear power generation, and in terms of external relations, improving relations with neighboring countries. However, present politicians, irrespective whether they belong to the ruling or opposition parties, only run into populism and promise their voters to scatter money. When asked to say about contents, ministers always read out the sentences prepared by bureaucrats and otherwise desperately insists that they themselves are not responsible but the bureaucrats are.

Can't they talk to the people in their own words about the contents of the policies they understand and intend? I don't think that we have had only incapable politicians. The names of Prime Minister s such as Kakuei Tanaka, Yasuhiro Nakasone and Shinichiro Koizumi come to my mind. Unfortunately, Japanese political parties do not have decent think-tanks to study policy issues. Therefore, most politicians rely on government bureaucrats about policy measures. But, the present Prime Minister and ministers, when they are criticized, try to hold the bureaucrats responsible. Then, when the bureaucrats insist on correct opinions, they are threatened and relegated. Only bureaucrats who try to realize the hidden egoistic intention of the politicians will advance.

In the meantime, it's been a week since the state of emergency was lifted. The number of newly infected people in Tokyo has rebounded brilliantly, and on June 26th there were 534 people. A week ago, there were 388 people, an increase of 146 people, or 38% in terms of rate. This will force the Olympics to be without spectators, I presume. The Prime Minister and other LDP leaders are trying to ignore the “worry” of His Majesty, saying that it is merely the opinion of the chief of the Imperial Household Agency. But on July 12, when the number of spectators will be officially and finally decided, His Majesty's feelings will be inevitably respected.