The one-year delay of the 2020 Summer Games was officially agreed to on March 24 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, and the new schedule — the Olympics from July 23 to Aug 8, 2021 and the Paralympics from Aug 24 to Sept 5. — announced a week later.
A week after that, Abe declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and other prefectures, effectively multiplying the challenges of the Tokyo organizing committee which is now working through the logistical nightmare mainly from home.
Organizing staff still get sent out, however, for missions deemed essential tasks, like negotiating with venue operators to secure their facilities’ availability — an undertaking organizers are seeking to achieve at any cost in order to limit major disruptions to the competition schedule.
One of the biggest challenges for the host nation is the burden of additional costs generated by the postponement. Amid fears of a serious recession in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Tokyo is facing several hundred billion yen in extra costs, a prospect sure to stoke negative public opinion at a critical time.
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