Cancelling the Tokyo Olympics will cost Japan around $17billion, while the damage caused by another Covid-19 state of emergency will be higher, experts have warned.
An estimate by the Nomura Research Insitute (NRI) has claimed that cancelling this summer's Tokyo Olympics would cost the country around $17billion (¥1.81 trillion).
But an economist at the think-tank has warned that the economic loss from coronavirus cases spiking after the event could be even more damaging, Japan Times reported.
Japan, which has recorded more than 700,000 infections and 12,000 deaths from the virus, is in the grip of a month-long state of emergency and has delivered vaccinations to just under 5 per cent of its population.