As Covid cases rise, vaccination lags and costs soar, most Japanese people are extremely cynical about the Games

The Olympic Games begins in Tokyo on Friday, just as Covid-19 blights the city for the fourth time – and a year after the Games were originally scheduled to begin.

Despite the latest alarming spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations across the city’s metropolitan area, Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has reiterated his resolve to go ahead with the Games, declaring at a session of the International Olympic Committee held on 20 July that “the Games can be held successfully, with the efforts and wisdom of the people”.

Kosuke Takahashi is Tokyo correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly and former editor-in-chief of HuffPost Japan