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Reuters

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama said he understands why many in his home country want this summer’s Tokyo Olympics cancelled as the country continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic but he hopes the event can still go forward.
The Masters champion said the United States is further along in its efforts to vaccinate people against the virus than in Japan, where only about 3.5 per cent of its population of about 126 million has been vaccinated.
“The virus has looked at a little bit differently in Japan than here in the United States,” Matsuyama told reporters ahead of this week’s PGA Championship in South Carolina.
“Just look around today, lots of people are here watching golf without masks, where in Japan they’re still very cautious. I can certainly understand those people who are voicing their opinion about the Olympics.”
Hideki Matsuyama: Japan’s Olympic hype machine will need to tread carefully with mild-mannered Masters hero
Health experts and medical groups in Japan are among those who have cautioned against holding the Games, while an online petition calling for them to be cancelled was signed by hundreds of thousands of people.
Matsuyama said he was looking forward to competing at the Games but said he is primarily concerned with winning more major tournaments after he became the first Japanese man to do so with his triumph at Augusta National.


“As a golfer, the four majors are really what we strive to win. Not that we don’t try to win the Olympics, but those are the events that are very important,” he said.
He would feel sympathy for athletes in sports where the Olympics are far and away the most important competition.
Hideki Matsuyama becomes first Japanese male golfer to win a major championship at US Masters
“There are other sports where the Olympics are the ultimate, the pinnacle of their sport, and so I hope that the Olympics will be able to be held and in a great fashion that will make my fellow Japanese citizens proud,” he said.
The Tokyo Games are scheduled to begin on July 23.


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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020: Matsuyama understands Japan’s virus concerns but hopes Olympics can happen

Hideki Matsuyama hits from a bunker at the seventeenth green during a practice round for the 2021 PGA Championship. Photo: Reuters

Japan pushes on with Olympic test events as public opposition mounts and IOC says Games should go ahead

Japanese cyclist Nene Naito at the Olympic Games’ Cycling BMX Freestyle test event on May 17, 2021 in Tokyo. Photo: AP

Athletes compete during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Game men's basketball 3x3 test event Sunday, May 16, 2021 at Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People protest around Heiwadai Athletic Stadium in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, on May 11, 2021, against holding the Tokyo Olympics amid the coronavirus pandemic, as an ignition ceremony for the torch relay of the Games is held inside the stadium. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

(190307) -- BEIJING, March 7, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Maddison Keeney (top)/Anabelle Smith of Austria compete during the women's 3m synchro springboard final at the FINA Diving World Series 2019 at the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) in Beijing, capital of China, March 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Luo Yuan)

Seats are blocked off at the BMX freestyle track venue as a Covid-19 coronavirus prevention measure during a test event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo on May 17, 2021. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

The Olympic flame is passed from torch to torch during the Tokyo Olympic torch relay on a street leading to Izumo Taisha shrine in Shimane Prefecture, western Japan, on May 16, 2021. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Tokyo Olympics: petition to cancel Games signed by more than 350,000 people, citing coronavirus concerns

Japan’s Azumi Fujieda competes at a women’s street skateboarding test event at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. Photo: EPA-EFE

Kenji Utsunomiya after submitting a petition calling for the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics. Photo: Kyodo

Tokyo Olympics: Japanese cities left in limbo over ‘host town’ deals as coronavirus concerns persist

Japanese protesters outside Heiwadai Athletic Stadium in Fukuoka, reflecting concerns about the coronavirus before the Olympic Games. Photo: Kyodo

09 May 2021, Japan, Tokyo: Protestors hold signs that spell out "No Olympics" in front of Tokyo's National Stadium, during a protest against hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics. Photo: Damon Coulter/SOPA Images via ZUMA Wire/dpa

A 109-year-old woman in a wheelchair takes part in the Tokyo Olympic torch relay in Yamatokoriyama in Nara Prefecture on April 12, 2021. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Sport

Golf


Health experts and medical groups in Japan are among those who have cautioned against holding the Games



Health experts and medical groups in Japan are among those who have cautioned against holding the Games.


PGA Championship

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories