Following a virtual meeting between the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Japanese government, the Tokyo government, and local organizers, it has been announced that spectators from abroad will not be permitted to attend the Tokyo Olympic games when they open in about 4 months. Officials say that the risk to admit international spectators is too risky during a pandemic, and that athletes arriving must test for Covid-19 prior to leaving home, upon arrival in Japan, and frequently during their stay while they reside in the Athletes Village alongside Tokyo Bay. Athletes will not require to be vaccinated to enter Japan.

While the organizers of the games promise to provide refunds of the roughly 600,000 tickets already been sold to fans outside of Japan, specifics will be determined by authorized ticket resellers that handle international sales. As these resellers often charge up to 20% fees above the ticket price, it is still unclear whether the fees will be refunded as well. Organizers also say that they are not responsible for money lost on pre-booked flights, hotels, and transportation. Currently, over 4,400,000 tickets have been sold to Japanese residents, and officials are expected to announce venue capacities sometime next month.

Japan officially spent about 15.4 billion United States dollars to organize the Olympic games, though several audits by third party and government organizations suggest that the true cost may be over twice the reported amount. A study from the University of Oxford says that these are the most expensive Olympics on records, and the loss of international could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for Japan.

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