Tokyo Olympics Can Coexist With Covid-19, Organizers Say

International Olympic Committee Vice President John Coates, who heads the IOC’s coordination commission for the Tokyo Olympics, told French news agency AFP on Monday that the Games “will take place with or without Covid.”

As the coronavirus spread rapidly around the world earlier this year, the IOC and Japan pushed the Olympics back a year from the planned start date of July 2020. Japan has said the Games will either take place starting in July 2021 or be canceled altogether.

Local coordinating officials are now starting to put together health and safety measures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading at the Games. On Friday, Japan said it would set up a committee of government and sports leaders to decide on measures to ensure the safety of the Olympics.

Guidelines for athletes, spectators and officials are scheduled to be compiled before the end of the year.

“If domestic and international athletes are willing to comply with our measures, I feel that the Olympics next summer will be safe and secure,” Tokyo 2020 Chief Executive Toshiro Muto said Friday.

Japanese officials haven’t provided details but say safety measures will be sufficiently rigorous to ensure the Games can go ahead even if a coronavirus vaccine isn’t widely available. “We had discussions with the World Health Organization and others, and reached the consensus that there does not need to be a vaccine to hold the Olympics,” Mr. Muto said.

Japan’s confidence that it will be able to host the Games next year partly reflects its relative success so far at avoiding a severe toll of illness and death from the coronavirus by global comparisons. Just over 70,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Japan, and fewer than 1,400 people have died, according to government data.

Japan has also managed to resume most professional sports. Professional baseball and soccer games have been taking place, with the number of spectators limited to 5,000. On Tuesday, pro baseball and soccer officials asked the government to increase the limit.

Hiroaki Nakanishi, head of the business federation Keidanren, said Japan was containing the virus well but expressed skepticism that other countries would be ready next year, citing high death tolls from Covid-19 in India and Brazil. “This isn’t going to be easy,” he said. “I want it to happen, but to make this workable they’re going to have to be resourceful and prepared.”

One major unanswered question is what limits, if any, would be placed on spectators at the Olympics. Most tickets have already been sold and remain valid for the new dates of the Games. Japan currently bars most overseas visitors but is slowly relaxing restrictions.

The government’s desire for the Olympics to go ahead reflects billions of dollars of investment in new stadiums and other facilities. The one-year delay has added additional costs just as the economy is reeling from the impact of the coronavirus, further weakening public enthusiasm for the Games.

Next week, Parliament will elect a new prime minister after Shinzo Abe, Japan’s leader since 2012 and a driving force behind the successful bid to win the Games, recently said he would resign because of illness. Mr. Abe’s most likely successor, Yoshihide Suga, says he is committed to the Games going ahead.

Asked last week if he believed the Olympics could be held in the summer of 2021, Mr. Suga said: “The government is addressing this issue and working closely with those involved so that the Games can be held safely and securely.”

—River Davis and Chieko Tsuneoka contributed to this article.

Write to Alastair Gale at [email protected]