Thread by @tkatsumi06j

In a rare post on @asahi, the award-winning novelist #JiroAkagawa #赤川次郎 calls on the world of medicine and the press to "each raise their voices against the Olympics," demanding the #Tokyo2020 organizers to call off the Games because "no human loss can ever be recovered."

P.S. This is a provisional translation by me.
#SaveLivesNotTheOlympics #StopTokyoOlympics
#cancelTheTokyoOlympics #CancelTokyo2020

Calling off the Olympics is the only path

Imagine lovers, side by side, enjoying their night walk alongside a river. Imagine a family of three generations, gathered to celebrate their grandchildren's birthday, embracing each other. That's the life that we wanted to return to.

Instead, we are regressing into an 'unconscionable state.' Holding the Olympics & Paralympics Game in the midst of a state of national emergency while novel coronavirus cases are surging? You would be appalled if it was about another country: "What a terrible country they are!"

The sole duty of any national leader is to 'protect the lives of the people.'

The nature of the virus is still largely unknown. And yet, we are to invite over 90,000 people in and out of our country?

How are we supposed to stop the cases from surging while doing that? We may even have a new pandemic coming that would sweep through the globe.

There is no way out except to decide to call off the Olympics as soon as possible. If we have to compensate, then so be it. We can recover from economic loss, but no human loss can ever be recovered.

It is time for the medical community and the press to use their common sense and conscience to raise their voices against the Olympics.

This may be nothing but preaching to the deaf for those who are so engulfed with their vested interests, but perhaps that would be an insult to the deaf.

JIRO AKAGAWA (73)
Author, Tokyo

Reader's Voice
Asahi Shimbun
June 6, 2021.