Officials in charge of staging the Tokyo Olympics crowded around a low table inside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's residence late Tuesday, wincing as they spoke by phone with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
Minutes later, Abe emerged to inform a gaggle of reporters that they had agreed to officially delay the Olympics.
The evening call between Abe and Bach concluded days and weeks of negotiations between Tokyo and Lausanne, Switzerland, where the IOC is based, and came after repeated public denials by Japanese officials that a pandemic might derail the games.