Too many rumors and promises, Tokyo Olympic organizers need to take firmer action

Rumors are around whether the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be eventually canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the reports from Wang Zijiang, the Xinhua resident correspondent in Tokyo.

TOKYO - There have been many rumors about the Tokyo Olympic Games since it was postponed in March last year. The Japanese side, including their Prime Minister, has responded every time by making a promise that the Games will take place as scheduled.

The latest rumor is from the Times of London which quoted an unidentified senior member of the ruling government coalition as saying that Japan's government has privately decided to cancel the Tokyo Olympics because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The English newspaper, owned since 1981 by American media mogul Keith Rupert Murdoch, also the owner of Fox News, said, "No one wants to be the first to say so but the consensus is that it's too difficult. ...Personally, I don't think it's going to happen."

The report, published one day ahead of the organizers marking the six-month countdown to the opening ceremony, caused an immediate uproar in the world and great anger from the Japanese organizers and the International Olympic Committee, which both claimed the report to be untrue.