Emperor s Tokyo Olympic opening declaration mirrors divided public Sorry, but your browser needs Javascript to use this site. If you re not sure how to activate it, please refer to this site: https://www.enable-javascript.com/
Emperor Naruhito waves during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics at the National Stadium in the capital on Friday. | REUTERS
KYODO Jul 25, 2021
The conspicuous absence of the word “celebrating” in the Japanese version of Emperor Naruhito’s opening declaration for the Tokyo Olympics reflects a public deeply divided over whether the Games should be going ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Postponed a year by the global outbreak of COVID-19, the Olympics officially began Friday with a spectatorless ceremony at the 68,000-capacity National Stadium.
Masanori Okada, a professor at Waseda University, left, and Ryuichi Ozawa, a professor at Jikei University School of Medicine, center, explain their request for the government to disclose documents related to their membership rejection to the Science Council of Japan in Tokyo on April 26. (Yu Kamata)
Six scholars have threatened legal action against the government if it refuses their information-disclosure request to find out why Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga rejected their memberships on the Science Council of Japan.
Most of their requests for documents on the reason and history behind their rejections were made on April 26.
They said they will consider filing a complaint or lawsuit if the government fails to provide the documents or blacks out information in them.