TheEconomistMarch 28th 2020 331W
hen theannals of the new corona-
virus are written, a chapter will
surely be devoted to the dogged insistence
by Japan’s prime minister, Abe Shinzo, that
despite a galloping global pandemic the
Tokyo Olympic Games would go ahead as
planned in July. Mr Abe—the most assert-
ive prime minister since his beloved grand-
father, Kishi Nobusuke, who secured the
1964 Olympics for Tokyo—is not used to be-
ing gainsaid. But on March 24th he at last
conceded, declaring that the games would
be postponed by a year. The announcement
left the Olympic flame stranded in, of all
places, Fukushima, the site of a nuclear
meltdown in 2011.
Only 12 days earlier Mr Abe had con-
vened a press conference on a Saturday to
insist that postponement or cancellation
was unthinkable. Japan itself had the
coronavirus under control, he said. The
games would provide a welcome tonic as
the world emerged from the pandemic’s
shadow. Yet the shadow was only lengthen-
ing as he spoke, shutting down travel and
upending training schedules across Asia,
Europe and America. At the start of this
week Australia and Canada said they wouldnot send their athletes if the games went
ahead. An opinion poll found nearly two-
thirds of Japanese wanted a delay.
Japan had much riding on the games, as
did Mr Abe himself. Officially, they were to
be the “recovery Olympics”, marking the
country’s bounce-back from the Fuku-
shima disaster. But the government also
wanted to show off Japan’s corporate gen-
ius, organisational verve and innovative
design, just as the Olympics did in 1964.
Toto wanted to show off all-singing, all-
dancing toilets and Toyota had plans for a
flying car. Since the bursting of the stock-
market and property bubbles in the late
1980s, Japan Inc has suffered a collective
loss of confidence. “Japan,” Mr Abe had de-
clared when he came to power in 2012, “is
back.” Here was the chance to prove it.
Pressed into national service by Dentsu,
Japan’s advertising giant, big firms includ-
ing Bridgestone, Canon, Nomura, Toto and
Toyota provided a record $3.1bn to sponsor
the games. Even before the postponement,
executives wondered what the outlay of as
much as $100m a firm would get them. The
answer will have to wait a year. Meanwhile,
the spanking new stadium, the hotels builtto put up hordes of spectators, Toyota’s
new fleet of London-style cabs, the Olym-
pic banners lining the empty roads and
even the commemorative manhole covers
all give parts of Tokyo the air of an aban-
doned stage set.
The absence of visitors spending gaily
this summer will be keenly felt. Even be-
fore the advent of covid-19, the economy
was slowing. It is almost certainly in reces-
sion now. The Bank of Japan has been busy
buying shares to prop up the stockmarket.
Starting next week the Diet will rush
through an emergency stimulus package
worth perhaps ¥30trn ($271bn)—on a par
with its response to the global financial cri-
sis. But one senior politician worries that
cautious beneficiaries will promptly stash
the proceeds under the futon.
Much depends on the course of the
coronavirus in Japan. Mr Abe was criticised
for the early handling of the crisis—the
government welcomed Chinese visitors for
the lunar new year even after the Wuhan
eruption was known, and fumbled the
handling of a cruise ship with infected pas-
sengers. The prime minister’s poll num-
bers took a dive, improving only after he
closed schools and even banned audiences
at the spring sumo tournament.
Japan has to date been a virus outlier:
the epidemic has proceeded more slowly
than in other big economies. It had its first
infection in mid-January, two weeks before
Italy. Since then Italy has recorded more
than 74,000 cases and 7,500 deaths. In Ja-
pan just over 1,300 have been reported as
infected and only 45 have died.Covid-19 in JapanBlowing out the flame
TOKYO
The government bows to the inevitable and delays the OlympicsAsia
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