Pressure is mounting to delay this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, which are scheduled to start on June 24.
Until now, the Tokyo Olympic organisers has said there is ‘no plan B’, insisting the Games will go ahead as planned.
However, Japan’s prime minister said on Monday that postponing the Olympics is now a possibility.
The change in stance follows the announcement that Australia Organising Committee will withdraw from the Tokyo games and has told athletes to prepare for them to be rescheduled to 2021.
Australia’s decision follows Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic organising committees saying they were also pulling out and called on the International Olympic Committee to ‘postpone the Games for one year’.
UK Athletics chairman Nic Coward has already called for the event to be postponed and World Athletics president Lord Coe has now also called for the event to be pushed back.
In a letter to International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, Coe says holding an Olympics in July 2020 is ‘neither feasible or desirable’.
The International Olympic Committee said on Sunday that the council would make a decision within the next four weeks.
The Olympic torch relay ceremony is currently still scheduled to take place in Fukushima on Thursday.
