The opening ceremony is already mired in controversy.
After a yearlong delay and a string of scandals, the 2020 Summer Olympics is officially opening in Tokyo on Friday.
All eyes will be on the opening ceremony to see whether the host city can not only put on a good show but also lift spirits and unite a world battered by a raging pandemic. The event, which will be held in Tokyo’s newly rebuilt Olympic Stadium, is slated to begin at 8 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) and will be broadcast live on NBC.
No spectators will be allowed to attend the opening ceremony — or any event in an Olympic venue in Tokyo during the Games — as part of efforts to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection. There will also be a limited number of athletes in attendance.
The Games were initially scheduled to kick off in the Japanese capital last summer but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Tokyo Olympics organizing committee and the Japanese government have faced criticism for pushing ahead with the Games, despite public health concerns amid rising COVID-19 cases.
The opening ceremony is already mired in controversy of its own, with the latest incident happening on the eve of the event. The Tokyo Olympics organizing committee fired the ceremony’s director, Kentaro Kobayashi, over a joke he made about the Holocaust as a comedian in 1998.
“We have been preparing for the last year to send a positive message,” Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, said during a press conference Thursday. “Toward the very end now there are so many incidents that give a negative image toward Tokyo 2020.”
