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DESCRIPTION:5/11/21 STOP The Madness-Speakout At SF Japanese Consulate Against Olympics 
 In Japan In Middlel of Pandemic\n\nNo Tokyo-Fukushima Olympics In Japan In 
 the Middle Of Pandemic!\nSan Francisco Japanese Consulate \nTuesday, May 
 11, 2021 3:00 PM\n275 Battery St/California \nSan Francisco \nSponsored by 
 No Nukes Action \n\nIt is time to STOP the Tokyo Olympic Games!\nDespite a 
 full blown world pandemic the International Olympics Committee IOC, the 
 Japanese Suga government and the US along with the G7 are going\nahead with 
 the Olympics this coming July in Japan.\nThe torch bearers have been 
 contaminated with the virus and the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ 
 Unions, Susumu Morita, said the pandemic should take priority.\n “We must 
 stop the proposal to send nurses who are engaged in the fight against a 
 serious coronavirus pandemic to volunteer at the Olympics,” \nIn the 
 midst of the pandemic the government is demanding that 500 nurses be 
 assigned to protecting the participants in the Olympics. Hospitals are 
 already overloaded\nwith Covid patients and the Olympics in Japan could 
 lead to a catastrophic disaster for the the athletes, the people of Japan 
 and the world. There are also no plans to \nprotect the 78,000 volunteers 
 who also will not be vaccinated. According to a report they are "being 
 offered little more than a couple of masks, some hand \nsanitizer and 
 social-distancing guidance that may be hard to abide by."\n\nThe government 
 is also moving to release over 1 million tons of radioactive water into the 
 Pacifica ocean from the broken Fukushima nuclear power plants. 
 The\nprevious Prime Minister Abe had told the Olympics and the world that 
 the Fukushiman nuclear disaster had been overcome yet the broken nuclear 
 rods have still\nnot been removed from the reactors and have to be cooled 
 down with waters adding to the contanmination.\n\nThe Japanese govenment 
 knows that over 80% of the people of Japan are opposed to continuing with 
 the plans for the Olympics but the need to get benefits from NBC TV\nrights 
 and maintain business as usual despite the pandemic and nuclear crisis. It 
 is threatening to endanger the entire world by bringing tens of thousand of 
 people to Japan\nin the middle of a pandemic from countries like India, 
 Brazil and Africa. This insanity is another sign of the criminal negligence 
 and political role of the Japanese LDP politicians\nwho are supported by 
 Blinken and the US government in their drive to encircle China.\n\nOnly the 
 people in the US and around the world can halt this insanity. \nJoin the 
 rally and speak-out at the Japanese consulate on Tuesday May 11, 
 2021\nRally & Speak-out Against the Japan Olympics In The Middle Of Covid 
 Pandemic \nThursday March 11, 2021 3PM \nSan Francisco Japanese Consulate 
 \n275 Battery St/California \nSan Francisco \nNo Nukes Action 
 \nhttp://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/ \n\nSecure medical resources or 
 consider canceling Tokyo Olympics: infectious disease expert\n\nThe biggest 
 concern is that the Tokyo Olympics could trigger the spread of infections 
 to the rest of the world after the games are over. Discrimination against 
 Asians is spreading in the U.S., partly because the first COVID-19 case was 
 found in Wuhan, China. \n\nHamada said, "If infections spread to the rest 
 of the world amid anti-Asian sentiment, it will become an international 
 problem. It is necessary to confirm negative results when leaving Japan. 
 However, this work will also put pressure on medical resources."\n\nMay 6, 
 2021 (Mainichi Japan)\n\nThis March 2020 file photo shows Dr. Atsuo Hamada. 
 (Mainichi/Shogo Takagi)\nTOKYO -- As the spread of the coronavirus has 
 become a major obstacle to hosting the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, 
 "securing medical resources" is an essential condition for hosting the 
 games this summer, an expert on infectious diseases has pointed out. 
 \n\n"Doctors and nurses will be needed to treat and respond to those 
 infected with the coronavirus, and medical personnel will also be needed 
 for vaccinations. These are the two priorities of the people," said Dr. 
 Atsuo Hamada, a professor of travel medicine at Tokyo Medical University. 
 He continued, "The question is if we can allocate medical resources to hold 
 the Olympics (while handling those priorities)."\n\nHamada then said with 
 conviction, "If that is difficult, we have no choice but to cancel the 
 Olympics."\n\nAccording to Hamada, the first issue that must be addressed 
 before the games can be held is how to deal with mutant strains. Hamada 
 points out that while Japan is in a "state of isolation" and has prohibited 
 first-timer foreign nationals from entering the country in principle, 
 "variant strains have been found in Japanese nationals returning 
 home."\n\nIn addition, tens of thousands of people, including coaches, 
 referees, media personnel and more than 10,000 athletes are expected to 
 enter Japan for the games. Hamada said, "It is inevitable that an even 
 greater burden will be placed on quarantine, which is already struggling to 
 secure manpower, and the risk of increasing variant cases will be 
 higher."\n\nThe Japanese government has indicated that, in principle, 
 athletes will be tested for the coronavirus daily, but this is also likely 
 to place a heavy burden on medical services. The key, Hamada said, is to 
 vaccinate athletes and officials, as recommended by the International 
 Olympic Committee. \n\n"Recent studies have shown that vaccinations are 
 effective in preventing infections, as in Israel, where most of the 
 population has been vaccinated twice. It is better to vaccinate athletes 
 coming from overseas as much as possible. This will reduce the probability 
 of mutant strains being carried into Japan, which will help lighten the 
 burden on the medical field."\n\nHamada proposes that, if the games were to 
 go ahead as planned, they should be held without spectators to ease the 
 burden on the health care system. "If we allowed spectators, the risk of 
 clusters of infections occurring at competition sites or in the city would 
 increase. At this point, no one can predict the state of infections in 
 July, so it is better to take measures based on the assumption that there 
 will be no spectators," he said.\n\nThe biggest concern is that the Tokyo 
 Olympics could trigger the spread of infections to the rest of the world 
 after the games are over. Discrimination against Asians is spreading in the 
 U.S., partly because the first COVID-19 case was found in Wuhan, China. 
 \n\nHamada said, "If infections spread to the rest of the world amid 
 anti-Asian sentiment, it will become an international problem. It is 
 necessary to confirm negative results when leaving Japan. However, this 
 work will also put pressure on medical resources."\n\n(Japanese original by 
 Kazuhiro Tahara, Sports News Department)\n\nJapan nurses voice anger at 
 call to volunteer for Tokyo Olympics amid Covid crisis\nMedical staff say 
 their focus should remain on treating coronavirus patients rather than 
 helping hold 
 Games\n\nhttps://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/03/japan-nurses-voice-anger-at-call-to-volunteer-for-tokyo-olympics-amid-covid-crisis\n\nA 
 nurse receives the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Fujita 
 Health University Hospital in Toyoake, Aichi prefecture, central Japan,\nA 
 recent request to the Japanese Nursing Association to send 500 of its 
 members to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was met with a wave of anger. 
 Photograph: AP\nJustin McCurry in Tokyo\nMon 3 May 2021 03.07 EDT\n\nThe 
 organisers of the Tokyo Olympics have sparked anger in Japan’s medical 
 community after they asked 500 nurses to volunteer at this summer’s 
 Games.\nThe request came as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and 
 organisers pressed ahead with plans to hold the Games, even as the 
 coronavirus pandemic continued to worsen in the host nation, amid warnings 
 that the event could place an intolerable strain on exhausted health 
 workers.\nThe total number of Covid-19 deaths in Japan recently passed 
 10,000 – the highest in the region – while media reports said the 
 number of people with severe Covid-19 symptoms reached a record 1,050 at 
 the weekend.\nMedical staff in Tokyo and other areas where cases are 
 surging say their professional focus must remain on coronavirus patients 
 and people with other illnesses who have had their treatment delayed due to 
 the virus.\nOsaka prefecture, the epicentre of Japan’s fourth wave, has 
 run out of beds for seriously ill patients, with other people suffering 
 from the virus forced to spend hours waiting in ambulances before they can 
 be admitted.\nOlympic officials say 10,000 medical workers will be needed 
 during the Games, which will be held during the hottest time of the 
 year.\nBut a recent request to the Japanese Nursing Association to send 500 
 of its members to Tokyo 2020 was met with a wave of anger on social media 
 from nurses who said they were too busy to devote time to the Olympics.\nA 
 tweet by a local federation of medical unions outlining it opposition to 
 performing Olympic duties has received hundreds of thousands of retweets in 
 recent days.\nThe secretary general of the Japan Federation of Medical 
 Workers’ Unions, Susumu Morita, said the pandemic should take priority. 
 “We must stop the proposal to send nurses who are engaged in the fight 
 against a serious coronavirus pandemic to volunteer at the Olympics,” 
 Morita said in a statement.\nManchester City’s magisterial win a triumph 
 of composure and philosophy | Jonathan Wilson \nSKIP AD\n“I am furious at 
 the insistence on staging the Olympics despite the risk to patients’ and 
 nurses’ health and lives.”\nAlthough medical workers were the first 
 group in Japan to start receiving vaccines in mid-February, many have yet 
 to be given their first jab. Morita said unprotected medical staff fear 
 contracting the virus while treating patients or administering 
 vaccines.\nSo far, less than 2% of Japan’s population of 126 million has 
 received at least one dose – the lowest rate among OECD 
 countries.\n“Beyond feeling anger, I was stunned at the insensitivity [of 
 the request],” Mikito Ikeda, a nurse in the central city of Nago, told 
 Associated Press. “It shows how human life is being taken 
 lightly.”\nThe prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, provoked dismay when he 
 suggested that nurses who had stopped working, including those suffering 
 from stress and exhaustion, could be enlisted for Tokyo 2020.\n“I hear 
 many are taking time off, and so it should be possible,” he said last 
 week.\nHis comment drew criticism from Yukio Hatoyama, a former prime 
 minister, who tweeted: “Now people in Japan are barely getting by, 
 wondering if they will die from the coronavirus or as a result of the 
 economic slump. And Osaka and other places are asking for nurses to help 
 out. Don’t we need nurses to work at vaccination centres?”\nOpposition 
 MP Tomoko Tamura said: “The situation is extremely serious. Nurses 
 don’t know how they can possibly take care of this situation. It is 
 physically impossible.”\nWhile Suga repeats claims by the IOC and 
 organisers that it will be possible to put on a “safe and secure Olympics 
 in 81 days’ time, medical experts are increasingly sceptical. An article 
 in April’s BMJ said Japan should “reconsider” holding the Olympics, 
 arguing that “international mass gathering events … are still neither 
 safe nor secure”.\nHaruo Ozaki, head of the Tokyo Medical Association, 
 has said it will be “extremely difficult” to hold the Olympics now that 
 new, more transmissible variants of the virus are spreading in Japan, where 
 the cumulative caseload recently topped 600,000.\nOn Sunday, Japan reported 
 5,900 new infections and a further 61 deaths.\n“We have heard enough of 
 the spiritual argument about wanting the Games,” Ozaki said. “It is 
 extremely difficult to hold them without increasing infections, both inside 
 and outside Japan.”\nSuga last month declared a state of emergency in 
 Tokyo, Osaka and two other virus hotspots in an attempt to check the surge 
 in cases, with restaurants that serve alcohol asked to close until at least 
 11 May and “dry” establishments to cut their opening hours.\nWith 
 Associated Press\n\nJapan should cut its losses and tell the IOC to take 
 its Olympic pillage somewhere 
 else\nhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/.../japan-ioc-olympic.../\nImage 
 without a caption\nA boat sails past illuminated Olympic rings floating in 
 the waters off Odaiba island in Tokyo last month. (Toru Hanai/Bloomberg) 
 \nBy \nSally Jenkins\nColumnist\nMay 5, 2021 at 2:00 a.m. PDT\nAdd to 
 list\nSomewhere along the line Baron Von Ripper-off and the other 
 gold-plated pretenders at the International Olympic Committee decided to 
 treat Japan as their footstool. But Japan didn’t surrender its 
 sovereignty when it agreed to host the Olympics. If the Tokyo Summer Games 
 have become a threat to the national interest, Japan’s leaders should 
 tell the IOC to go find another duchy to plunder. A cancellation would be 
 hard — but it would also be a cure.\nVon Ripper-off, a.k.a. IOC President 
 Thomas Bach, and his attendants have a bad habit of ruining their hosts, 
 like royals on tour who consume all the wheat sheaves in the province and 
 leave stubble behind. Where, exactly, does the IOC get off imperiously 
 insisting that the Games must go on, when fully 72 percent of the Japanese 
 public is reluctant or unwilling to entertain 15,000 foreign athletes and 
 officials in the midst of a pandemic?\nThe answer is that the IOC derives 
 its power strictly from the Olympic “host contract.” It’s a highly 
 illuminating document that reveals much about the highhanded organization 
 and how it leaves host nations with crippling debts. Seven pages are 
 devoted to “medical services” the host must provide — free of charge 
 — to anyone with an Olympic credential, including rooms at local 
 hospitals expressly reserved for them and only them. Tokyo organizers have 
 estimated they will need to divert about 10,000 medical workers to service 
 the IOC’s demands.\nEight Olympic workers tested positive for the 
 coronavirus during the torch relay last week — though they were wearing 
 masks. Less than 2 percent of Japan’s population is vaccinated. Small 
 wonder the head of Japan’s medical workers’ union, Susumu Morita, is 
 incensed at the prospect of draining mass medical resources. “I am 
 furious at the insistence on staging the Olympics despite the risk to 
 patients’ and nurses’ health and lives,” he said in a 
 statement.\nOlympic officials are determined to have a Tokyo Games despite 
 Japan’s growing doubts\nJapan’s leaders should cut their losses and cut 
 them now, with 11 weeks left to get out of the remainders of this deal. The 
 Olympics always cost irrational sums — and they lead to irrational 
 decisions. And it’s an irrational decision to host an international 
 mega-event amid a global pandemic. It’s equally irrational to keep 
 tossing good money after bad.\nAt this point, money is the chief reason 
 anyone is even considering going forward with a Summer Games. Japan has 
 invested nearly $25 billion in hosting. But how much more will it cost to 
 try to bubble 15,000 visitors, with daily testing and other protocols, and 
 to provide the security and massive logistics and operating costs? And what 
 might a larger disaster cost?\nSuppose Japan were to break the contract. 
 What would the IOC do? Sue? If so, in what court of justice? Who would have 
 jurisdiction? What would such a suit do to the IOC’s reputation — 
 forcing the Games in a stressed and distressed nation during a 
 pandemic?\nJapan’s leaders have more leverage than they may realize — 
 at the very least, they are in position to extract maximal concessions from 
 the IOC for hosting some limited or delayed version of the Games, one more 
 protective of the host.\nThe predicament in Tokyo is symptomatic of a 
 deeper, longer-lasting illness in the Olympics. The Games have become a 
 to-the-very-brink exercise in pain and exhaustion for everyone involved, 
 and fewer countries are willing to accept these terms. Greed and blowout 
 costs have rendered it an event that courts extreme disaster. In September, 
 a report out of Oxford University’s business school found that the IOC 
 has consistently “misled” countries about the risks and costs of 
 hosting. Example: The IOC pretends that a contingency of about 9.1 percent 
 is adequate to cover unforeseen expenses.\nThe true average cost overrun on 
 a Summer Games? It’s 213 percent.\nThe IOC understates these risks for a 
 reason: because fewer and fewer countries want to do business with it after 
 seeing all the pillage.\nThe IOC intentionally encourages excess. It 
 mandates elaborate facilities and events for the sake of revenue, most of 
 which it keeps for itself while dumping the costs entirely on the host, 
 which must guarantee all the financing. The IOC sets the size and design 
 standards, demands the hosts spend bigger and bigger — against all better 
 judgment — while holding close the licensing profits and broadcasts fees. 
 Tokyo’s original budget was $7 billion. It’s now four times 
 that.\nChina controls the IOC and Olympic sponsors the way it governs its 
 citizens: Through fear\nIn the Oxford paper, “Regression to the Tail: Why 
 the Olympics Blow Up,” authors Bent Flyvbjerg, Alexander Budzier and 
 Daniel Lunn observe that the Games dwarf every other national building 
 project on earth in terms of cost blowouts — even mega-dams and tunnel 
 digs. The ever-increasing complexity and expense, and the long window of 
 planning (seven to 11 years) make them a project with high uncertainty that 
 can be affected by everything from inflation to terrorist threat and “the 
 risk of a big, fat black swan flying through it.” The Rio Games, held in 
 2016 in the midst of brutal economic downturn, were 352 percent over their 
 original budget. And these blowouts are “systematic,” not 
 happenstance.\n“Either the IOC is deluded about the real cost-risks when 
 it insists that a 9.1 percent contingency is sufficient, or the Committee 
 deliberately overlooks the uncomfortable facts. In either case, host cities 
 and nations are misled,” they write.\nThis is why virtually the only 
 government leaders that will have anything to do with the IOC anymore are 
 thugocrats such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who can coerce labor and 
 spend limitlessly for prestige. Over the past 20 years, other potential 
 hosts have dried up. Among those who have wisely said no to the IOC: 
 Barcelona, Boston, Budapest, Davos, Hamburg, Krakow, Munich, Oslo, Rome, 
 Stockholm and Toronto. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who wrested away 
 key concessions from the IOC for the 2028 Games, has observed that most 
 cities “will never say yes to the Olympics again unless they find the 
 right model.” This is where the barons’ gluttony has led them.\nAll of 
 this should empower Japan’s leaders to do whatever is best for themselves 
 and their own people. When the Games reasonably could be portrayed as a 
 source of international tourism revenue, perhaps some of the expense could 
 be justified. But now the costs to the Japanese people run much deeper than 
 financial. If ever there was a time and place to remember that the IOC is a 
 fake principality, an oft-corrupt cash receptacle for peddlers with 
 pretensions of grandeur, this is it. The IOC has no real powers, other than 
 those temporarily granted by participant countries, and Japan owes it 
 nothing. A cancellation would be painful — but cleansing.\n\n[Mayday] 
 Japan Medical workers give a real demonstration "# I'm having trouble 
 dispatching nurses to the 
 Olympics”\n\nhttps://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=https://tanakaryusaku.jp/&prev=search&pto=aue\n\n\nThe 
 nurse was indignant at the request to dispatch the Olympic Organizing 
 Committee and showed a firm refusal. = 1st, Sumida Ward Photo: Ryusaku 
 Tanaka =\n\n　Even medical care is used as a tool for making money, and 
 life and health are secondary. Under the neo-liberal line, the plan to make 
 the metropolitan hospital legal is underway.\n\n　The "mobilization of 
 10,000 medical staff" and "request for dispatch of 500 nurses" by the 
 Olympic Organizing Committee came out as a natural consequence.\n\n　A 
 time when workers are thrown away. Despising medical workers will despise 
 the lives and health of the people. \n　\n　Today, on May Day, nurses, 
 hospital staff, and health center staff marched in Tokyo, complaining that 
 "don't mobilize medical workers for the Olympics" and "reject the request 
 to dispatch nurses." (Organizer: Fight to survive 2021 May Day Executive 
 Committee)\n\n\n"Olympic games of money rather than life". He pointed out 
 the essence of the matter. = 1st, Sumida Ward Photo: Ryusaku Tanaka 
 =\n\n　A nurse working in a nursing home in Tokyo said, "How can I turn it 
 when I can't afford it? If you turn it with too few people, medical errors 
 may occur."\n\n　The "request for the dispatch of 500 nurses" is a 
 madness. It's a crazy square because I'm trying to make it work for 
 free.\n\n　I hope that the medical workers who take care of the lives and 
 health of the people will awaken their sanity.\n\n\nPrime Minister Suga is 
 also a source of confusion. = 1st, Sumida Ward Photo: Ryusaku Tanaka 
 =\n\n　\n　　　　　　~ End ~\n\n　　　　◇ \n"Tanaka Ryusaku 
 Journal" tells about events that newspaper TV does not report or cannot 
 report. It is maintained with the support of our readers. ↓\n\n\nIn Japan 
 Big deck in the hospital window and "Medical care is the limit Stop the 
 Olympics”\nhttps://tanakaryusaku.jp/2021/05/00024921?fbclid=IwAR339p2dtrAdZiliue0p7F_uD-8N4RX7AcnekzUvUIZ4r_b90tfXZcOcwSQ\n\n\n= 
 4th night, Tachikawa City Photo: Ryusaku Tanaka =\n\n　A general hospital 
 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The phrases "Medical care is the limit, stop the 
 Olympics" and "Already the Kamben Olympics" were affixed to the windows one 
 by one.\n\n　The screams of the medical staff who have been transcribed 
 are transmitted to the outside world. According to the office staff on 
 duty, "the hospital staff posted it."\n\n　There was a Twitter 
 demonstration of "#Nurse dispatching to the Olympics is a problem", and 
 there was a real demonstration of "Nurse dispatching, categorically 
 refusing" in Tokyo.\n\n　A nurse in Tokyo said, "The hospital has a 
 connection with the politicians of the Liberal Democratic Party, and it is 
 difficult to express their intentions."\n\n　Hospitals all over Japan 
 should post "Medical care is the limit Olympics stop" and "Kanben Olympics 
 Muri" like general hospitals in Tachikawa city.\n\n\nThe overhang can also 
 be seen from the monorail passing by. = 4th night, Tachikawa City Photo: 
 Ryusaku Tanaka =\n\n\n“Top Kiwi epidemiologist says Olympics must be 
 postponed - and why Government should take action”\n(NZ Herald  2 May, 
 2021 02:15 
 PM).\n\nhttps://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/top-kiwi-epidemiologist-says-olympics-must-be-postponed-and-why-government-should-take-action/FIY32UWL7EGV2JDMPIB6BBFH3A/?fbclid=IwAR1QM9DYA1jFsXj_vVrMAduHUH9EPAqssqAAIOLNxJz01Dt2GsbDo4rI__c\n\n1 
 May, 2021 10:15 PM\nDame Valerie Adams getting her first dose of the Pfizer 
 vaccine in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. Video / Brett Phibbs\nNZ 
 Herald\nA top epidemiologist says the Olympics should be postponed because 
 of the pandemic and is calling for the New Zealand Government to take 
 action.\nAbout 450 New Zealanders will be heading to Tokyo for the 
 Olympics, which is set to kick off on July 23.\nKiwi athletes have received 
 priority vaccinations and support from the Government to make their travel 
 as safe as possible, including MIQ spots on their return.\nOtago University 
 professor Michael Baker believes the issue with the Olympics isn't about 
 the safety of New Zealand athletes, but about the message it sends to the 
 rest of the world that are still being ravaged by Covid-19.\nBaker points 
 to the situation in India, which is experiencing hundreds of thousands of 
 new cases per day, adding that having the Olympics this year is morally 
 wrong.\n"You basically have to look at how the pandemic's behaving 
 globally. It's very unequal. It's intensifying in countries like India to a 
 huge extent," Baker told Newstalk ZB's The Weekend Collective.\n"The 
 Olympics are all about celebrating this level playing field, global unity 
 and overcoming Covid-19 – that's what was the statement made when the 
 decision was made early this year to go ahead. So much global unity in 
 overcoming Covid-19 are we seeing at the moment?\n"It's not about the 
 safety of New Zealand athletes. I think that's for sure with vaccinations 
 and other precautions. It's what this says about low income countries 
 around the globe. Is this fair and reasonable? Because for their athletes 
 to be vaccinated and attend, they have to divert vaccine from the most 
 vulnerable. And these are people who are dying every day. It is a matter of 
 life or death for many countries in the world."\nA mother and a boy walk by 
 a display of the Olympic rings at the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo. Photo 
 / AP\nYesterday Baker also said the Government and the New Zealand Olympics 
 Committee need to take a stance on this year's Games.\n"We should recognise 
 what is at stake here and I would really like to see New Zealand government 
 take a firm stance on this," he told Stuff. "The New Zealand Olympic 
 Committee should be saying they are not going to have a bar of it. Someone 
 needs to say the obvious – that it should not happen now.”\n\nHow Can 
 the Olympics Protect 78,000 Volunteers From the Coronavirus?\nThey are 
 being offered little more than a couple of masks, some hand sanitizer and 
 social-distancing guidance that may be hard to abide 
 by.\nhttps://www.nytimes.com/.../olympics-volunteers...\nWith less than 
 three months to go before the opening ceremony, many details are still 
 being worked out for the Summer Games in Tokyo.\nWith less than three 
 months to go before the opening ceremony, many details are still being 
 worked out for the Summer Games in Tokyo.Credit...Philip Fong/Agence 
 France-Presse — Getty Images\nBy Motoko Rich\nPublished May 2, 
 2021\nUpdated May 3, 2021, 9:17 a.m. ET\nTOKYO — For Olympic host cities, 
 one of the keys to a successful Games is the army of volunteers who 
 cheerfully perform a range of duties, like fetching water, driving Olympic 
 vehicles, interpreting for athletes or carrying medals to ceremonies.\nIf 
 the rescheduled Tokyo Games go ahead as planned this summer, roughly 78,000 
 volunteers will have another responsibility: preventing the spread of the 
 coronavirus, both among participants and themselves.\nFor protection, the 
 volunteers are being offered little more than a couple of cloth masks, a 
 bottle of sanitizer and mantras about social distancing. Unless they 
 qualify for vaccination through Japan’s slow age-based rollout, they will 
 not be inoculated against the coronavirus.\n“I don’t know how we’re 
 going to be able to do this,” said Akiko Kariya, 40, a paralegal in Tokyo 
 who signed up to volunteer as an interpreter. The Olympic committee 
 “hasn’t told us exactly what they will do to keep us safe.”\nAs 
 organizers have scrambled to assure the globe that Tokyo can pull off the 
 Games in the midst of a pandemic, the volunteers have been left largely on 
 their own to figure out how to avoid infection.\nMuch of the planning for 
 the postponed Olympics has a seat-of-the-pants quality. With less than 
 three months to go before the opening ceremony, the organizers have yet to 
 decide whether domestic spectators will be admitted, or hammer out details 
 about who, besides the athletes, will be tested regularly.\nTens of 
 thousands of participants will descend on Tokyo from more than 200 
 countries after nearly a year in which Japan’s borders have been largely 
 closed to outsiders. The volunteers’ assignments will bring them into 
 contact with many of the Olympic visitors, as they pass in and out of a 
 “bubble” that will encompass the Olympic Village and other 
 venues.\nImageBarbara G. Holthus, a volunteer and deputy director of the 
 German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, said she worries that the 
 Olympic Games could become a superspreader event.\nBarbara G. Holthus, a 
 volunteer and deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies 
 in Tokyo, said she worries that the Olympic Games could become a 
 superspreader event.Credit...Noriko Hayashi for The New York 
 Times\n“There are a lot of people who have to go in and out of the 
 bubble, and they are not protected at all and not even being tested,” 
 said Barbara G. Holthus, a volunteer and deputy director of the German 
 Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. “I do see the risk of a 
 superspreader event.”\nA leaflet distributed to volunteers advises them 
 to ask visitors to stand at least one meter — a little over three feet 
 — apart. During shifts, they should disinfect their hands frequently. If 
 offering assistance to someone, they should avoid directly facing the other 
 person and never talk without a mask.\n“Mask wearing and hand washing are 
 very basic, but doing that to the max is the most important thing we can 
 do,” said Natsuki Den, senior director of volunteer promotion for the 
 Tokyo organizing committee.\n“People often say, ‘That is so basic, is 
 that all you can do?’” Ms. Den said. But if every volunteer implements 
 these basic measures, she said, “it can really limit the risk. Beyond 
 that, it is hard to think of any magic countermeasures, because they 
 don’t really exist.”\nEven as a majority of the Japanese public has 
 remained opposed to hosting the Olympics this year, many volunteers say 
 they are committed, at least in principle, to fostering international 
 fellowship after more than a year of isolation. (The ranks of volunteers 
 did take a sizable hit when about 1,000 volunteers quit after the first 
 president of the Tokyo organizing committee, Yoshiro Mori, made sexist 
 comments.)\nBut volunteers worry about their own health as well as the 
 safety of the athletes and other Olympic participants, especially as Tokyo 
 experiences new spikes in virus cases. The capital is currently under a 
 state of emergency.\n“I am scared that I would get the virus and show no 
 symptoms, and accidentally give it to the athletes,” said Yuto Hirano, 
 30, who works at a technology company in Tokyo and is assigned to help 
 athletes backstage at the Paralympics events for boccia, a ball sport. “I 
 want to protect myself so that I can protect them.”\nYuto Hirano, a 
 volunteer assigned to help at the Paralympics events for boccia, is worried 
 about unintentionally infecting athletes during the Games.\nYuto Hirano, a 
 volunteer assigned to help at the Paralympics events for boccia, is worried 
 about unintentionally infecting athletes during the Games.Credit...Noriko 
 Hayashi for The New York Times\nIn addition to the Olympic volunteers, 
 organizers need to secure medical workers to staff the Games. Typically, 
 doctors and nurses also volunteer to work at the Olympics, but this year, 
 with the medical system overstretched from a year of fighting the 
 coronavirus, health care workers have begun to balk.\n“We are surprised 
 about the talk going around requesting the dispatch of 500 nurses to the 
 Tokyo Olympics,” the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions said 
 in a statement posted on its website, adding that “now is not the time 
 for the Olympics, it’s time for coronavirus countermeasures.”\nAs the 
 pandemic rages on, some nonmedical volunteers are going to great lengths to 
 keep safe. Yoko Aoshima, 49, who teaches English at a business college in 
 Shizuoka, about 90 miles outside Tokyo, has booked a hotel for the days she 
 is scheduled to work, at a cost of 110,000 yen, or about $1,000. That means 
 she won’t have to commute.\nTo avoid public transit in Tokyo, she plans 
 to purchase a bicycle when she gets to Tokyo to commute to the field hockey 
 stadium where she is assigned shifts.\nBut Ms. Aoshima, who decided to 
 volunteer in part to honor the legacy of her father, a former physical 
 education teacher, wonders how she will protect her family when she returns 
 home after the Games.\n“When I go back to Shizuoka, is it safe enough for 
 my family to stay with me?” Ms. Aoshima asked. “Will I be able to go 
 back to work?” She said she had already purchased a few at-home 
 coronavirus tests to use after the Olympics.\nYoko Aoshima wonders how she 
 will protect her family when she returns home after the Games.\nYoko 
 Aoshima wonders how she will protect her family when she returns home after 
 the Games.Credit...Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times\nFor volunteers 
 who have spent the last year avoiding crowds, the concept of suddenly being 
 thrust into contact with athletes, coaches, officials or members of the 
 media from outside Japan is triggering a sense of cognitive 
 dissonance.\n“I only saw one friend last year, when she had a baby,” 
 said Ms. Kariya, the paralegal in Tokyo. “I go to the supermarket or the 
 bank, where I really need to go. The last time I rode the train was last 
 March.”\nIn the absence of more safety measures, Ms. Kariya said she was 
 considering quitting as a volunteer.\nMany volunteers are disappointed that 
 they will not be offered vaccines before the Games. So far, organizers have 
 said they are not considering prioritizing Japan’s Olympic athletes for 
 vaccination, much less volunteers.\n“They can’t say they have priority, 
 because then the people would start shouting at them,” said Chiharu 
 Nishikawa, 61, who goes by Charles. He volunteered at the Olympics in Rio 
 de Janeiro in 2016 and London in 2012 and advises the Olympic committee 
 about volunteering.\nSome volunteers said they were worried that organizers 
 did not have the resources to monitor everyone for adherence to the rules, 
 which include wearing masks, avoiding dining in restaurants and staying off 
 public transit. \nImage\nChiharu  Nishikawa, called Charles,  volunteered 
 at the previous two Summer Games and advises the Olympic committee about 
 volunteering.\nChiharu  Nishikawa, called Charles,  volunteered at the 
 previous two Summer Games and advises the Olympic committee about 
 volunteering.Credit...Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times\nMs. Holthus 
 said volunteers could be put in a sticky spot, given that their primary 
 role is to project an image of harmonious hospitality.\nA volunteer 
 handbook issued before the Olympics was postponedlast year encouraged them 
 to “address people with a smile.” In online sessions and other 
 messaging since, Ms. Holthus said, “They still keep saying, ‘Oh, and 
 your smile is going to be so important.’”\n“We’re supposed to be 
 wearing masks,” she said. “So I find that very insensitive.”\nNot 
 every volunteer has serious concerns about safety. Some said that they 
 expected widespread compliance with the rules, given what’s on the 
 line.\n“I think athletes will do whatever it takes to participate in the 
 Olympics,” said Philbert Ono, a travel writer, photographer and 
 translator.\n“If we tell them to wear a mask, they will wear a mask,” 
 he said. “When they have meals, they will sit way far apart and separated 
 and facing only one direction. So I think they are very disciplined and 
 they know what is at stake.”\nHikari Hida contributed reporting.\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/05/06/18842241.php
SUMMARY:STOP The Madness-Speakout At Japanese Consulate Against Olympics In Japan During Pandemic
LOCATION:San Francisco Japanese Consulate\n275 Battery St/California St.\nSan 
 Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/05/06/18842241.php
DTSTART:20210511T220000Z
DTEND:20210511T230000Z
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