Nearly a month before the decision was announced to postpone the 2020 Olympics, the media was already speculating over their fate. On Feb. 24, the headline in Nikkan Gendai read, “Relinquishing of the Tokyo Olympics would mean ¥20 trillion in economic losses.”
Noting that a growing number of recent domestic sports events — such as the Tokyo International Marathon — had been scaled down or canceled outright, the article also mentioned proposals advanced from several people in the United Kingdom that the games be transferred to London.
To this, sportswriter Gentaro Taniguchi remained upbeat, going so far as to predict, “Short of a pandemic in Japan, I don’t think there’s any possibility the Olympics will be canceled.”