TOKYO (Reuters) – A majority of Japanese remain opposed to holding the Olympics this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic but the ratio lowered significantly from recent polls, a Yomiuri newspaper poll showed on Monday.
Some 28% of respondents said they want the Olympics to be cancelled and the same ratio of people think they should be held without spectators, the poll showed.
The Yomiuri poll showed a combined 61% wanting the Games to be postponed or cancelled altogether, around 20% points lower than recent opinion polls.
Just 36% of the public are in favour of holding the Tokyo Olympics this summer, of which 28% are calling for no spectators while the remaining 8% back allowing spectators.
The Tokyo Olympic Games were postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rescheduled to take place this year starting on July 23.
Some 56% expected the coronavirus pandemic to remain unchanged in the summer, while 37% anticipated improvement and 3% saw it getting worse. Some 70% believed the vaccination would help resolve the situation, outweighing those who saw no containment. (This story has been refiled to correct garbled headline)
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
