A top official from the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) for the 2021 Tokyo games, Yasushi Moriya has died after jumping in front of a subway train yesterday dealing a blow to the preparations which are at an advanced stage at the moment.
Africa Today News, News, New York gathered that the 52-year-old was seen jumping onto the tracks at Nakanobu Station in the south of the capital at 09:30 am local time and was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital.
Police are investigating the circumstances of the incident, which they are viewing as an apparent suicide, the television network said.
Read Also: Japan Opens Mass Vaccination Centres Ahead Of Olympics
Nikkei reported that Moriya was an accounting manager and that no suicide note was found on his body.
A representative of the JOC told Reuters news agency it was gathering information on the incident.
Moriya’s death comes as pressure mounts for Tokyo to cancel next month’s Games amid concerns it will turn into a super-spreader event.
Worries about variants of Covid and a slow vaccination drive have prompted calls from doctors, some high-profile business executives, and hundreds of thousands of citizens to cancel the Olympic Games, due to run from July 23 until August 8.
Public sentiment is firmly against the Games, with a poll from mid-May showing that more than 80 percent of Japanese people are opposed to holding the event this year.
However, officials, including Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, seem determined that the Games – already postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic – will go ahead as planned.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK