Tokyo 2020 organisers cut crowds at sailing events over
tsunami risk
Olympic authorities reduce crowd size to make evacuations
easier
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Thu 31 Jan 2019
A sailing event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Crowd sizes
at the Tokyo 2020 Games will be smaller due to tsunami risk. Photograph: Nic
Bothma/EPA
The organisers of next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo have
decided to cut the number of spectators for the sailing events by a third so
they can be quickly evacuated to higher ground in the event of a tsunami.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics organising committee had initially planned
to allow up to 5,000 people to watch the sailing events off Enoshima island,
just south of the Japanese capital, according to the public broadcaster NHK.
They lowered the number to 3,300, however, after discussing
tsunami evacuation measures with local authorities, NHK added.
Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the
world. Its Pacific coast, where the sailing events will take place, is
susceptible to powerful tsunamis triggered by earthquakes.
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In less than two months’ time the country will mark the
eighth anniversary of the March 2011 triple disaster, in which more than 18,000
people were killed by a huge tsunami along the north-east coast.
While there is disagreement on the likelihood of Tokyo being
struck by a destructive earthquake in the foreseeable future, government
experts believe there is a high probability of a major earthquake occurring in
the Tokyo metropolitan area within the next 30 years.
A powerful offshore quake could trigger a large tsunami that
would reach the shore within minutes, NHK said, citing government projections.
The decision to cut spectator numbers at Enoshima is not the
only adjustment organisers of the Olympics, which will run from 24 July to 9
August 2020, have had to make in view of Japan’s vulnerability to powerful
natural forces and extreme weather.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported last week that organisers had
decided to shift the start time for the men’s and women’s marathons to 6am – an
hour-and-a-half earlier than originally planned – to avoid the health risk to
runners and spectators from the intense heat later in the day.
The men’s 50km walk will start two hours earlier, at 5.30am,
the newspaper said, citing sources close to the Games.
In July last year a record 133 people died from heatstroke
or heat exhaustion in Japan, with thousands of others admitted to hospital. The
country experienced its highest temperature on record on 23 July, when the
mercury reached 41.1C in Kumagaya, a city north-west of Tokyo. Several other
cities recorded temperatures of about 40C.
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