Tokyo
Dhaka, Tokyo plan events to celebrate 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties
Bangladesh and Japan will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two friendly countries this year with elaborate programmes.
The two countries established diplomatic relations on February 10, 1972.
To mark this historic occasion, Bangladesh and Japan have decided to organise various events in Dhaka and Tokyo to further strengthen bilateral partnership.
Japanese Ambassador Ito Naoki met Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen at the State guesthouse Padma on Wednesday to discuss the events and other issues of common interest.
The Foreign Minister recognised Japan as a long-trusted friend of Bangladesh and a proven development partner.
READ: Dhaka, Tokyo to bring more opportunities of partnership in 2021, beyond: Naoki
He recalled the unwavering Japanese support for the cause of independence of Bangladesh as well as Japanese development cooperation since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two friendly countries.
Both sides recalled the historic official visit of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to Japan in October 1973, which laid the rock-solid foundation of the bilateral relations between the two countries.
The Japanese Ambassador shared that the Embassy of Japan in Dhaka would publish a commemorative photo book on the historic visit of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to Japan on the auspicious occasion of the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations between the two countries.
Commemorative coins will be issued by the Bangladesh Bank on February 10 and made available at Motijheel central office and Taka Museum, Mirpur.
He reiterated the government of Japan’s support for an early repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh to their ancestral homes in Myanmar and their relocation to Bhasan Char from Cox’s Bazar camps.
The Foreign Minister urged Japan to use her influence to persuade Myanmar to create a conducive environment in Myanmar and facilitate safe return of the Rohingyas to the Rakhine State.
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He appreciated Japan’s contributions to the infrastructure development in Bangladesh and sought more Japanese investments.
The Japanese Ambassador assured that Japanese as well as international investors would be setting up their factories in the Araihazar Economic Zone from early next year.
He requested the Foreign Minister to ease customs and related issues to facilitate more Japanese investments in Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister Momen assured to look into the issues.
Bangladesh, India embassies in Tokyo to jointly celebrate 50 yrs of friendship
The Embassies of Bangladesh and India in Tokyo will jointly celebrate 50 years of Bangladesh-India Friendship.
Maitri Diwas or Friendship Day will be celebrated in a befitting manner on Monday.
Read:Thailand eyes FTA; shipping routes with Bangladesh
All the preparations and formalities have been completed to make the event a success, said a media release.
Japanese Members of Parliament, high-ranking government officials, along with captains of industry and friends from cultural world, media and social organizations from Japan will participate in the event.
Japan expects Hasina to visit Tokyo next year
Japan expects Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to pay an official visit to Japan in 2022, the year of 50th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, said Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki.
On the auspicious occasion that falls on February 10, 2022, Bangladesh and Japan agreed to take their bilateral relations to the next level.
The Japanese Ambassador highly appreciated the socio-economic development of Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and assured of continuing its support to Bangladesh.
This was discussed when Japanese Ambassador Naiko met State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam at his office on Thursday.
Also read: Rohingya Repatriation: Japan to encourage Myanmar to take concrete measures
The State Minister and the Ambassador expressed their satisfaction at the ever-expanding bilateral cooperation between the two countries and agreed to organize befitting commemorative events both in Dhaka and Tokyo.
Ambassador Naoki expressed that the inauguration of Metro Rail Line 6 in 2022 would be an appropriate event on the 50th anniversary.
The Japanese envoy also highlighted that the Arihajar Special Economic Zone would see Japanese and international investment worth of US$ 1 billion beginning next year.
Shahriar Alam thanked the Japanese government for their continued development assistance to Bangladesh and encouraged more Japanese private investment for the mutual benefits of the two countries.
Alam appreciated the Japanese government for their continued support to the Rohingyas temporarily sheltered in Bangladesh and highlighted that their early repatriation is a must for the sake of stability and security in the region.
He urged Japan to use her influence to persuade Myanmar and the international community to create a conducive environment in Myanmar for the safe and sustainable return of the Rohingyas.
Also read: Dhaka-Tokyo ties growing beyond bilateral front: Japanese Vice Minister
Ambassador Naoki reiterated the commitment of the Japanese government’s continued support for the safe and voluntary repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar.
Japan's Kishida sends offering to controversial Tokyo shrine
Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida donated ritual offerings Sunday to a Tokyo shrine viewed by Chinese and Koreans as a symbol of Japanese wartime aggression, though he did not make a visit in person.
Kishida donated “masakaki” religious ornaments to mark Yasukuni Shrine's autumn festival. It was the first such observance by Kishida since he took office on Oct. 4.
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Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially Chinese and Koreans, see the shrine as a symbol of Japan’s militarism because it honors convicted World War II criminals among about 2.5 million war dead.
Such observances are seen by critics as a sign of a lack of remorse over the country's wartime atrocities.
Kishida was visiting the 2011 tsunami-hit areas in northern Japan over the weekend and stayed away from the shrine.
His predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, also only made offerings during his one-year leadership. He stepped down in September and visited the shrine on Sunday, dressed in a formal morning coat.
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Suga told reporters that he visited as a former prime minister to “offer my respect to the sacred spirits of those who sacrificed their precious lives for the country and to pray that their souls may rest in peace.”
After China and the Koreas reacted with outrage to a visit to Yasukuni by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013, Japanese leaders have avoided visiting the shrine while in office.
Many South Koreans deeply resent Japan for its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have soured in recent years amid disputes over compensation for Korean wartime laborers and over the systematic abuses of “comfort women” used for sex by the Japanese military before its World War II defeat in 1945.
Magnitude 5.9 quake shakes Tokyo area; more than 30 injured
A powerful magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook the Tokyo area on Thursday night, injuring more than 30 people, damaging underground water pipes and halting trains and subways.
Officials said there was no danger of a tsunami but traffic disruptions continued the next morning, with local trains delayed and commuters overflowing rom stations.
The Meteorological Agency said the quake was centered in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, at a depth of about 80 kilometers (48 miles).
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It caused buildings to sway and hanging objects such as signs to swing violently. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there were no abnormalities at nuclear power facilities in the area.
Most trains operated Friday morning but with major delays and entry restrictions to avoid overcrowding. There was a long waiting line outside of Shinjuku station in Tokyo, and hundreds of morning commuters were overflowing from the Kawaguchi station.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Friday that 32 people were injured, three of them seriously, from the quake.
Police in Chiba prefecture, where 11 people were injured, said two women in separate locations sprained their ankles when they were thrown to the floor during the quake. A commuter train partially derailed in eastern Tokyo when it made an emergency stop, causing three passengers to fall and get slightly injured, according to the disaster management agency.
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Others were injured in Kanagawa, Saitama and Gunma prefectures.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said about 250 homes in downtown Tokyo temporarily lost power.
“Shinkansen” super express trains in and out of Tokyo were halted for safety checks but later resumed operation, East Japan Railway Co. said.
Tokyo’s Yamanote loop line and subways restarted late Thursday, but with major delays. Outside of Tokyo's Shinagawa station, where local trains were temporarily halted because of power outages, there was a long line of people trying to get taxis home.
Dozens of people in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba were stranded at stations, and some took shelter at facilities set up by local municipalities.
Many elevators automatically stopped, including those at Tokyo's metropolitan government building, temporarily trapping some people.
Fire and disaster officials said underground water pipes were damaged in dozens of locations in Tokyo. In one district, water was gushing from the ground.
New Prime Minister Fumio Kishida posted a message on Twitter urging people to “check the latest information and take action to protect your lives.” He said it was the strongest shaking in Tokyo since March 2011.
Kishida returned to his office late Thursday to lead the government's response.
Trains packed with commuters as Japan fully ends emergency
Japan fully came out of a coronavirus state of emergency for the first time in more than six months as the country starts to gradually ease virus measures to help rejuvenate the pandemic-hit economy as the infections slowed.
At Tokyo’s busy Shinagawa train station, a sea of mask-wearing commuters rushed to their work despite an approaching typhoon, with some returning to their offices after months of remote work.
The emergency measures, in place for more than half of the country including Tokyo, ended Thursday following a steady fall in new caseloads over the past few weeks, helping to ease pressure on Japanese health care systems.
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Outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga thanked the people for their patience and cooperation, and asked them to stick to their basic anti-virus measures.
“Once again, I seek your cooperation so that we can return to our daily lives feeling safe,” he said.
The lifting of the emergency marked a fresh start for some people.
Office worker Akifumi Sugihara, 46, said he is back to the train station for the first time in about a year. “I had been working from home for more than a year, and I came to the office in Tokyo as (the emergency) was lifted today,” he said. “It’s really been a while. I feel it’s a new start.”
Another office worker, Kaori Hayashi, 37, said it was an ordinary Friday. “In my mind nothing really has changed,” she said. “We still need to be careful. I will stay vigilant and carry on my life as usual.”
Japan is eager to expand social and economic activities while balancing the need to prevent another wave of infections as the weather turns cooler. Officials say the government still needs time to create more temporary COVID-19 treatment facilities and continue vaccinations to prepare for any future resurgence.
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The emergency measures have mainly involved requests for eateries to curb alcohol and hours. They can now serve alcohol and operate an hour longer but still have to close at 9 p.m.
Daily reported cases have fallen to below 1,600 as of Wednesday nationwide — less than one-tenth of the mid-August peak of around 25,000. Experts attributed the declining numbers to the progress of vaccinations and to people increased their social distancing efforts after being alarmed by the collapse of medical systems during the summer.
Nearly more than 59% of Japanese people have been fully vaccinated. Japan has had about 1.69 million cases and 17,641 deaths from COVID-19.
Japan to further expand virus emergency areas as cases surge
Japan was set to expand its coronavirus state of emergency for a second week in a row Wednesday, adding several more prefectures as a surge in infections fueled by the delta variant strains the country’s health care system.
The government last week extended the state of emergency until Sept. 12 and expanded the areas covered to 13 prefectures from six including Tokyo. Sixteen other prefectures are currently under quasi-emergency status.
Read:Japan to widen virus emergency after record spike amid Games
The government at a meeting of experts Wednesday proposed upgrading eight prefectures from quasi-emergency status to a full state of emergency. Those prefectures include Hokkaido and Miyagi in the north, Aichi and Gifu in central Japan, and Hiroshima and Okayama in the west.
The proposal was expected to be approved and formally announced later Wednesday.
Japan’s state of emergency relies on requirements for eateries to close at 8 p.m. and not serve alcohol, but the measures are increasingly defied. Unenforceable social distancing and tele-working requests for the public and their employers are also largely ignored due to growing complacency.
The Japanese capital has been under the emergency since July 12, but new daily cases have increased more than tenfold since then to about 5,000 in Tokyo and 25,000 nationwide. Hospital beds are quickly filling and many people must now recover at home, including some who require supplemental oxygen.
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More than 35,000 patients in Tokyo are recovering at home, about one-third of them unable to find a hospital or hotel vacancies immediately. Only a small percentage of hospitals are taking virus patients, either for financial reasons or because they lack the capability to treat the infections, experts say.
Japan has weathered the pandemic better than many other countries, with around 15,600 deaths nationwide since the start, but its vaccination efforts lag behind other wealthy nations. About 40% of the population has been fully vaccinated, mainly elderly people.
Economy and Fiscal Policy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, also in charge of the COVID-19 measures, said Wednesday that infections are spreading among those in their 20s to 50s who are largely unvaccinated. He urged them to take extra caution.
“Just imagine you may be the one getting infected tomorrow,” he said.
Rising infections among schoolchildren and teenagers could accelerate the surge as they begin returning to school after the summer vacation, said Dr. Shigeru Omi, top government medical advisor. He proposed schools curtail activity and urged high schools and colleges to return to online classes.
“Infections in Tokyo are showing no signs of slowing, and the severely tight medical systems will continue for a while,” he told a parliamentary session Wednesday.
The government has faced criticism for holding this summer’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics despite strong opposition from the public. Officials deny any direct link between the games and the spike in infections.
Tokyo’s Olympic fears give way to acceptance, to a point
When the Tokyo Olympics began during a worsening pandemic in Japan, the majority of the host nation was in opposition, with Emperor Naruhito dropping the word “celebrating” from his opening declaration of welcome.
But once the Games got underway and local media switched to covering Japanese athletes’ “medal rush,” many Japanese were won over. They watched TV to cheer on Japanese athletes in an Olympics that ended Sunday with a record 58 medals for the home nation, including 27 gold.
There are still worries that Japan will pay a price for hosting these Games; recent days have seen record numbers of virus cases. But for now, among many, a sense of pride and goodwill is lingering.
“Having the games in the middle of the pandemic didn’t seem like a good idea, and I did wonder if they should be canceled,” said Keisuke Uchisawa, 27, an office worker. But the medal haul, he said, was “very exciting and stimulating. Once the Games started, we naturally cheered the athletes and simply enjoyed watching them.”
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His wife Yuki, a medical worker, worried especially about the pandemic. But she began cheering when she noticed patients at her hospital beaming as they watched the Games. “I saw the power of sports, and I thought it was wonderful,” she said. “Athletes made outstanding performances, and we wanted to cheer for them.”
The couple were recently picking out matching Olympics shirts and pandemic masks from an official goods store in downtown Tokyo. The store, almost empty before the Games, was crowded on a recent weekday toward the end of the Olympics. Many customers appeared to be workers from the neighborhood dropping by during lunch breaks.
Beforehand, a lot of Japanese expressed reluctance or opposition to holding the Olympics during a pandemic that, for them, was worsening. A series of resignations of Olympic-linked officials over sexism, past bullying and Holocaust jokes also hurt the Games’ image ahead of the July 23 opening. There were protests on Tokyo streets and on social media.
After the opening ceremony, however, many opponents started to cheer.
More than half of Japan’s population watched the event, according to rating company Video Research — the highest rating for an Olympic opening ceremony in Japan since 61% for the 1964 Tokyo games, a time when far fewer people had televisions.
Outside the National Stadium, where dozens of demonstrators regularly held anti-Olympic rallies, many fans stood in a line next to the Olympic rings waiting to take selfies. It was the closest they could get to locked-down, spectator-free stadiums.
Opposition to the Olympics has steadily dropped in recent weeks. One poll taken by the Asahi newspaper just ahead of the Olympics showed opponents fell to 55% from around 70% earlier this year, and 56% of the respondents said they wanted to watch the Games on TV. And separate surveys taken by the Yomiuri newspaper and TBS Television at the end of the Games showed more than 60% of their respective respondents said it had been good to hold the Games.
Those who felt intimidated by the unwelcome mood in the beginning began to feel relieved.
“It was a bit scary to get on a train wearing an Olympic volunteer uniform” early on, when people were still more strongly opposing the Games, said Asuka Takahashi, a 21-year-old student who helped at the beach volleyball venue. She felt less tension after the Games started, and thought more people were interested in them than she had initially believed.
Read: Over 450 Covid cases confirmed during Tokyo Olympics
And when Takahashi recently visited Olympics stores, she also saw that lots of merchandise was sold out. “Many Japanese,” she said, “are enjoying the Olympics in the end.”
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, criticized for insisting on hosting the Olympics despite the virus, was likely hoping for this evolution in sentiment. He has been trying to reverse nosediving support ratings for his government ahead of general elections expected in the autumn.
“Japanese Olympians’ outstanding achievements will give us strength, too,” said Tateo Kawamura, a veteran lawmaker of Suga’s governing party. Suga called and congratulated judoka Naohisa Takato, who won the first gold for Japan, and has since publicly congratulated medal winners on Twitter.
Suga has repeatedly said there is no evidence linking the upsurge in cases to the Games — and, in fact, barely more than 400 positive cases were reported inside the Olympic “bubble” from early July until the closing ceremony.
But whether the Games lift public sentiment in a lasting way could hinge on how the virus plays out.
“The government has forced the holding of the Olympics and Paralympics in order to regain popularity ... but it’s a risky gamble,” Seigo Hirowatari, a University of Tokyo law professor emeritus, said during a recent online event.
While some have tried to see the positive side of the Olympics, others remain opposed. There’s a new word floating around to describe what some see as a growing pressure to support or even to talk about the Games: “Oly-hara” or Olympic harassment.
Medical experts have raised alarms as virus infections accelerate in Tokyo; daily cases surged to new highs during the Olympics. On Aug. 5, Tokyo logged 5,042 cases, an all-time high since the pandemic began early last year. Experts say the ongoing infections propelled by the more contagious delta variant could send the daily case load above 10,000 within two weeks. Nationwide, total cases exceeded 1 million, with more than 15,300 deaths.
Last week, Japan’s government introduced a contentious new policy in which coronavirus patients with moderate symptoms will isolate at home as the surge of cases strain hospitals. That policy was needed, the government said, in spite of an expansion of the state of emergency from Tokyo to wider areas that will last until the end of August.
Read: Mixed bag: Erratic Pandemic Olympics come to a nuanced end
“If you turn on the TV, there is nothing else but the Olympic Games, and people are not sharing in a sense of crisis” about the exploding infections amid the festivity, said Dr. Jin Kuramochi, a respiratory medicine expert. “People will see the reality after the closing ceremony.”
Those who opposed the Games say the money should have been spent on health care and economic support for pandemic-hit people and businesses. The $15.4 billion cost of the Games — largely shouldered by Japanese citizens’ tax money — has caused concerns.
That leads to sentiments like the one from Yoko Kudo, a preschool teacher.
“I hope” she said, “at least the rest of the world will thank Japan for achieving the Games despite the difficulties.”
10 passengers injured in stabbings on Tokyo train
A man with a knife attacked 10 passengers on a commuter train in Tokyo on Friday and was arrested by police after fleeing, fire department officials and news reports said.
Tokyo metropolitan police said early Saturday they seized a man in his 30s who brandished a knife and caused injuries to nine people inside carriages of a commuter train. The Tokyo Fire Department said nine of the 10 injured passengers were taken to nearby hospitals, while the 10th was able to walk away. All of those injured were conscious, fire department officials said.
A woman in her 20s was seriously injured, NHK public television said. It said the suspect left his knife behind as he fled, and later gave himself up at a convenience store.
The Japanese capital is currently hosting the Olympics, which end Sunday.
NHK identified the man as 36-year-old Yusuke Tsushima. He reportedly told police that he developed the intent to kill after seeing women who looked happy, and chose his targets at random.
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Police refused to confirm the report of his arrest or details about the suspect.
A witness at a nearby station where the train stopped said passengers were rushing out of the carriages and shouting that there was a stabbing and asking for first aid. Another witness told NHK that he saw passengers smeared with blood come out of the train, as an announcer asked for doctors and for passengers carrying towels.
Dozens of paramedics and police arrived at the station, one of the witnesses said.
NHK said the suspect later walked into a convenience store and identified himself as the suspect on the news, and said he was tired of running away. The store manager called police after seeing bloodstains on the man’s shirt.
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Police were questioning the man as they prepared his arrest, NHK said.
The stabbing occurred near Seijogakuen station, according to railway operator Odakyu Electric Railway Co.
While shooting deaths are rare in Japan, the country has had a series of high-profile killings with knives in recent years.
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In 2019, a man carrying two knives attacked a group of schoolgirls waiting at a bus stop just outside Tokyo, killing two people and injuring 17 before killing himself. In 2018, a man killed a passenger and injuring two others in a knife attack on a bullet train. In 2016, a former employee at a home for the disabled allegedly killed 19 people and injured more than 20.
Clean, repeat: At Tokyo Games, virus is Olympians' chief foe
Holding each other tighter than lovers, the wrestlers smear each other with sweat, spittle and — when they inadvertently cut each other — sometimes blood. Lungs heaving, mouths agape, they huff and puff into each others’ flushed faces. On their glistening bodies, it’s impossible to tell their opponents’ fluids and theirs apart.
Underscoring the health risks of such proximity: They are the only people in the cavernous hall not wearing face masks.
Watching Olympic wrestling in the midst of the pandemic of a deadly airborne disease feels like being part of a virological experiment, a real-life study of droplets, aerosols and fluid dispersion.
A germophobe’s nightmare, it’s a messy spectacle best observed from the stands where volunteers hold signs reading “keep physical distance” for non-existent crowds, barred from the Tokyo Games because of surging coronavirus infections in the Olympic host country where less than one-third of the population is vaccinated.But because wrestling is the most close-contact sport of the Olympics, it also speaks loudest of the all-out war against the virus that athletes have waged to get to Tokyo and, once here, continue to fight to stay free of infection and compete.
Wrestlers are the Games’ equivalent of the canaries that alerted coal miners to noxious gases in the air of closed-in mines. That even they say they feel safe going body to body in combat testifies to extraordinary efforts that Olympians are making to stay healthy, exercising a sanitary discipline that has made competition possible but has also squeezed a lot of fun from their Olympic experience.
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Which Brazilian wrestler Aline Silva says is a necessary price to pay. She hopes the Tokyo Games will serve as a counterweight to COVID-19 fatigue by sending a sobering message that until the virus is beaten, people everywhere should exercise greater caution and take better care of themselves and others. Brazil has the world’s second-highest COVID-19 death toll with 556,000 fatalities.
“In Brazil, everybody knows that it is best to not be in parties and do things like that. But I don’t know why they don’t care, they do anyway,” Silva said. “So we need to show people that we need, right now, to be focused on doing our jobs as safely as possible.”
The 34-year-old had set her sights in Tokyo on making amends for her failure to win a medal at her home Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. But when the pandemic struck, she decided to put wrestling on hold indefinitely, in part because it no longer felt safe but also to set an example that life couldn’t, shouldn’t, simply carry on as before. She has an uncle who spent 13 days in the hospital with COVID-19. Only this year, in a small bubble of athletes who were tested and lived together with limited outside contact, did she resume preparations for the Games.
“I believe that, right now, people should be thinking about lives. That matters more than any sport. But we are here, trying to beat this virus, too,” she said. “We need to do our part for everybody to survive. I might not die of COVID but I don’t want to pass the disease on to somebody that might die. A lot of people, I think, don’t think about that.”
In Tokyo, Olympians can’t not think about that. They are sealed off in a giant sanitary bubble built with daily tests, oceans of sanitizer and strict restrictions on their movements. They are instructed not to mix with people outside their teams. They are told to avoid hugs, high-fives and handshakes — all deemed “unnecessary” by Games organizers — advice they often ignore in the heat and joy of competition. They cannot watch sports other than their own or wander around the city.
The dining hall in the athletes’ village where most of them are confined has hospital-like cleanliness. Matilda Kearns, a water polo competitor from Australia, detailed the sanitary procedures in a TikTok posting. They not only sanitize their hands but also wear plastic gloves before touching food trays that have also been sanitized, she said.
They then eat in small cubicles, which they wipe down with disinfectant wipes, separated by see-through plastic screens that make meal-time chat “pretty difficult because it’s hard to hear through them,” Kearns said. She added that they also have an additional team rule “that once the mask is off, you only have 10 minutes to eat to reduce exposure.”
Preventive measures extend also onto fields of play.
Table tennis has barred players from blowing on the ball before they serve, which some used to do to rid it of dust, and from wiping sweaty palms on the table. Before the pandemic, players were only allowed to wipe themselves down with towels after every six points, to avoid slowing play. Now, they can use towels liberally, to avoid sweat on the table. Players also must wear masks and gloves when selecting their stock of balls before matches.
In badminton, when players need to replace a damaged shuttlecock, they now get a new one themselves from a dispenser, so they are no longer handled by the match official who used to distribute them.
At the Olympic boxing arena, uniformed cleaners attack the ring between most fights to wipe down the ropes, corner pads and canvas of any sweat or blood, before the next pair of boxers forces them to do it all over again. In weightlifting, the bar is disinfected with surgical alcohol between lifts.
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Outside the Olympic bubble, fueled by the more contagious delta variant, infections in Tokyo have logged new daily records and nearly tripled in the first week after the Games opened on July 23. Japanese officials say the surge is unrelated to the Olympics.
Inside the Olympians’ bubble, infections have been limited. Since July 1, 222,000 tests on athletes and team officials yielded 32 positives, a strike rate of 0.01%, Games organizers say.
Fully vaccinated and as careful as he can be, Finnish wrestler Elias Kuosmanen said he felt safe enough to shut off his mind to the risk of infection when he competed and got all sweaty in the men’s Greco-Roman heavyweight class.
“We’re tested all the time, so I am pretty sure that the opponents and everyone are COVID-19-free,” he said. “I don’t need to stress about it.”