With their stadium devoid of fans due to coronavirus restrictions, Japanese baseball team Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have come up with an imaginative replacement: dancing robots. Before their most recent Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) game against Rakuten Eagles on Tuesday, over 20 robots danced to the team's fight song on a podium in the otherwise empty stand.
The rings were later illuminated and the neighbouring Rainbow Bridge lit up in a multi-coloured display, as organisers looked to provide a symbol that the rearranged Games can go ahead safely next year.
It is for the investigating agencies to probe all aspects of the assassination, including a possible Chinese hand, or if the killer was just a disgruntled element who acted on his own and wanted to earn some dark space in history like Nathuram Godse or Lee Harvey Oswald, notes Japan expert Rajaram Panda.
'The IOC is fully committed to the successful and safe delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.'
Tokyo Olympics organisers are preparing to host the Games next year even if the global coronavirus pandemic hasn't eased substantially, organising committee chief executive Toshiro Muto said on Tuesday. Muto said he hopes Tokyo 2020 could be the benchmark in a post-pandemic world.
The report comes after two members of the Ugandan Olympic delegation tested positive for the coronavirus last month upon arrival in Japan. One tested positive at Narita airport near Tokyo, but the remainder of the team was allowed to travel to a training site.
Bibhu Prasad Routray explains why the US is supporting Japan's resolve to release 'treated' radioactive waste water into the Pacific Ocean. And what role China plays in the US decision.
Tokyo prosecutors have questioned the president of the Japan Olympic Committee over controversial payments made to a Singaporean consulting firm during the bidding for the 2020 Summer Games, Kyodo News agency reported on Wednesday.
However, at his regular weekly news conference, Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said the reports were "optimistic" and that nothing had been announced.
The rampage, which took place in the Japanese city of Kawasaki, was a rare attack in a country with one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the developed world and there was no immediate detail on the motive of the knifeman.
The Sapporo Challenge Half Marathon 2021 was held on Wednesday as a dress rehearsal for the marquee Olympic event
The IOC said in a statement on Friday the qualification event would take place in Amman from March 3 to 11.
Many Japanese and medical experts oppose staging the 2020 Games as planned from July 23, after already being postponed a year, as their nation suffers a fourth infection wave.
Tokyo marathon which last year saw close to 38,000 amateur participants, was scaled back to just a few hundred professional athletes, with the public strongly discouraged from lining the route. In past years the event attracted more than 1 million roadside spectators.
A Japanese man recognised as the world's oldest living man turned 112.
Unprecedented rainfall in Japan unleashed heavy floods on Friday that ripped through parts of the island nation on Thursday, forcing more than 1 lakh people from their homes.
Organisers have already banned overseas spectators and set a cap on domestic spectators at 50 per cent of capacity
The tickets come in four colours -- red, blue, purple and green -- representing each of Japan's four seasons.
Shinzo Abe had been all but synonymous with Tokyo 2020, heavily involved in the winning bid in 2013 and dressing up as video game character Mario during the closing ceremony of the Rio Games three years later.
The National Stadium, set to host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, is one of the venues that has been successfully secured for 2021.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Thursday that organisers were looking at ways to simplify the Games.
Half of the Japanese public think the 2020 Olympics will take place this summer, a survey by the Yomiuri daily newspaper showed on Monday, despite most people opposing holding the Games during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Atletico Madrid have signed striker Luis Suarez from Barcelona, the Spanish clubs said on Wednesday, bringing to an end his six-year stint at the Camp Nou.
The environmentally conscious sleeping arrangements were put on display for the media for the first time on Thursday at a mock apartment in the Tokyo 2020 headquarters
Organisers should be prepared to act swiftly to ban spectators or declare another state of emergency if needed, the experts said. If spectators are allowed, rules should be strict, such as limiting fans to local residents, the experts said.
'If the Olympics were to spread infection, then what are the Olympics for?'
In India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia, more than 50 million persons in each country were estimated to be without handwashing access, according to the study.
'I believe we have already missed the opportunity to cancel ... We have been cornered into a situation where we cannot even stop now. We are damned if we do, and damned if we do not.'
Addressing a parliamentary committee, medical adviser Shigeru Omi said organisers should explain to the public why they are going ahead in the middle of a pandemic.
His father has apologised to his son and rescuers, saying, "we went too far".
Tokyo 2020 organisers held an earthquake drill on Thursday at Ariake Gymnastics Centre, a newly built venue for next year's Olympics, to test their readiness
The International Olympic Committee has been advised by the World Health Organization that there is no case for contingency plans to cancel or relocate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics over the coronavirus outbreak, the IOC's Coordination Commission head said on Friday.
Former world number four Kimiko Date has been invited to play in next month's Japan Women's Open barely a fortnight before she turns 47, the Japan Tennis Association said on Wednesday.
Did you blink? There was a total eclipse of the moon on Saturday -- and it was an unusually short one.
Over 160 rights groups call on IOC chief to revoke 2022 Beijing Winter Games
When the novel coronavirus outbreak hit China in late December and January, the government sprang into crisis mode. Hard-hit cities like Wuhan, where the outbreak began, went into complete lockdown. Millions worked from home or self-quarantined for weeks on end. New hospitals were built in a matter of days to treat the sheer number of patients. People who broke quarantine rules or lied about their travel history were detained. Soon, the virus spread over the globe, with many countries banning movement of citizens to some ordering sanitisation of public spaces. Take a look.
New infections have spiked ahead of the Olympics, which are set to start in July
The volcano is located about 50 kilometres from the Sendai nuclear plant that began operations last year after it was shut down along with other nuclear plants in Japan following the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person died on Wednesday morning of natural causes.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Tokyo later this month to expand India's strategic partnership with Japan and discuss a bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.
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