Statement by Kengo Sakurada, Chairman of Keizai Doyukai
on Opening of Tokyo 2020 Olympics

July 23, 2021

Kengo Sakurada
Chairman, Keizai Doyukai

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1. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have officially opened today. We do know that the Olympians around the world have been struggling with uncertainties and preparing just for this day with tireless efforts. We strongly hope that the efforts will bring a lot of fruits, delivering to the world heart-moving experience, hope, and a sense of solidarity. Our sincere respect goes to all of the people who worked till the last moment for the successful opening, despite the unknowns over the structure of organizing the games and ceremonies.
2. The 2020 Olympics must strike a balance between holding games and implementing COVID-19 countermeasures in the unusual environment of the state of emergency declaration. Highly skillful operation is a must. In this regard, we are counting on the maximum power of the frontline operations to realize secure and safe games.
3. Most of the games have no spectators. However, we hope to see the potential of the Olympics that can deliver, with state-of-the-art technologies, the experience of the Olympians' live performance to the viewers around the world.

Japanese version