Rakuten boss Hiroshi Mikitani / archive image
With the founder and managing director of the e-commerce group Rakuten, a prominent Japanese has spoken out vehemently against holding the Summer Olympics in Tokyo because of the corona pandemic. Hiroshi Mikitani said in an interview with CNN on Friday that it was not too late to cancel. “I call it a suicide mission,” he replied when asked what it would mean if the games were held.
“It is dangerous to hold such a large international event with people from all over the world. The danger is too great, I am against the Olympics this year,” said Mikitani almost ten weeks before the planned opening of the major event. A majority of the Japanese reject this year's staging of the summer games, which have been postponed by a year, as various surveys have shown for a long time. This week, the corona emergency was expanded to other regions of the country.
