The postponed Tokyo Summer Olympics should be staged as scheduled next summer "at any cost," Japan's Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto said Tuesday.
"All the people involved with the games are working together to prepare, and the athletes are also making considerable efforts toward next year under the circumstances they've been handed," Hashimoto said at a news conference, according to a translation published by Kyodo News.
"I think we have to hold the games at any cost. ... I want to concentrate all our efforts on measures against the coronavirus."
Hashimoto addressed reporters four days after Olympic organizers and Japanese officials first met to begin outlining COVID-19 countermeasures for the Olympics and Paralympics, which are scheduled to begin on July 23 and August 25 next year, respectively.