The delayed Tokyo Olympics may not go ahead this summer as planned as the COVID-19 pandemic rages, a Japanese cabinet minister said on Thursday, saying the host needs to be ready for anything.

"We need to do the best we can to prepare for the games at this moment, but it could go either way," Taro Kono, administrative and regulatory reform minister, said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference.

A global COVID-19 resurgence, including record infection levels in Japan, has raised fresh doubts about the games, which were postponed by one year in 2020.