Security balancing act leaves few satisfied

TOKYO, Japan (AP):

Struggling businesses forced to temporarily shut down around Olympics venues. Olympic visitors ordered to install invasive apps and allow GPS tracking. Minders staking out hotels to keep participants from coming into contact with ordinary Japanese or visiting restaurants to sample the sushi.

Japan’s massive security apparatus has raised complaints that the nation, during the weeks of the Games, will look more like authoritarian North Korea or China than one of the world’s most powerful, vibrant democracies.

The worry for many here, however, is not too much Big Brother. It is that all the increased precautions will not be nearly enough to stop the estimated 85,000 athletes, officials, journalists and other workers coming into Japan from introducing fast-spreading coronavirus variants to a largely unvaccinated population already struggling with mounting cases.

“It’s all based on the honour system, and it’s causing concern that media people and other participants may go out of their hotels to eat in Ginza,” Takeshi Saiki, an opposition lawmaker, said of what he called Japan’s lax border controls. So far, the majority of Olympic athletes and other participants have been exempted from typical quarantine requirements.

BREAKDOWN IN SECURITY

There have been regular breakdowns in security as the sheer enormity of trying to police so many visitors becomes clearer – and the opening ceremony looms. The Japanese press is filled with reports of Olympic-related people testing positive for the coronavirus. Photos and social media posts show foreigners linked to the Games breaking mask rules and drinking in public, smoking in airports – even, if the bios are accurate, posting on dating apps.

“There are big holes in the bubbles,” said Ayaka Shiomura, another opposition lawmaker, speaking of the so-called ‘bubbles’ that are supposed to separate the Olympics’ participants from the rest of the country.

But as the restrictions are tested by increasing numbers of visitors, officials have been blamed for doing too much and too little.

The government and the Games’ organisers “are treating visitors as if they are potential criminals,” Chizuko Ueno, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Tokyo, said on YouTube.

There is also lingering resentment over a widespread sentiment that Japan is facing this balancing act because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to have the Games happen, regardless of the state of the virus, to get the billions of dollars in media revenue critical to its survival. “We are not going to monitor the behaviour at all times,” Organising Committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. “The thing is, though, if there should be issues pertaining to their activity then, since the GPS function will be on, we’ll be able to verify their activities.”