Over 60% of companies across the country are reluctant to have the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics held this year due to concerns about the country's low COVID-19 vaccination rate, a survey by a credit research company showed earlier this week.
The online survey conducted by Tokyo Shoko Research from June 1-9 found that 34.7% of 9,163 firms responding would prefer the games to be canceled, while 29.3% wanted them to be postponed.
Conversely, 36.0% of companies said they wanted the major sporting event to be held as scheduled, down about 8 points from the previous survey in February.
In multiple answers, 76.3% of firms cited the low vaccination rate as the reason for wanting to postpone or cancel the games, followed by 75.7% referring to concerns that the arrival of Olympic personnel from overseas could help worsen the coronavirus infection situation in Japan.
A further 63.6% responded that diverting medical workers for the event would cause a strain on the general health care system in Japan.
Regarding the impact that canceling or postponing the games would have on their business, 58.8% of the 4,092 firms that responded said it would have a "large negative impact," while 41.2% said the opposite.