TOKYO — From the moment that Japan pitched to host the 2020 Olympic Games, its organizers have framed it as a symbol of recovery: from a decades-long economic slump, from a devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster and, after a year’s postponement, from a crippling pandemic.
Now, as the organizers press ahead with plans to hold the Tokyo Olympics this summer, the event itself threatens to become a trial from which Japan may take years to recover.
A series of health, economic and political challenges have besieged the Games. Even as the organizers decided last week to bar international spectators, epidemiologists warn that the Olympics could become a superspreader event.