Opportunities for domestic sports fans to watch live coverage of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games together around Japan are growing scarce, with some locations that were initially planned to host screenings of the games set to be repurposed as COVID-19 vaccination sites or shuttered altogether out of fears such gatherings could lead to cluster infections.
With the country in the midst of its third state of emergency — which includes restrictions on the hosting of large events — promotional activities for domestic fans have become a gamble some prefectures are no longer willing to take.
Before the Tokyo Games were postponed by one year in March 2020, organizers had planned more than 30 public promotional events across 12 municipalities.