To hold, or not to hold: Tokyo residents torn two months before Olympics

Shuta Yano, 28, a ball dancer, poses for a portrait as he performs on the street in Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, May 3, 2021. "I'm not an athlete, but I have spent my life mastering special skills, so in that sense I think I understand the athletes. So taking their point of view, I thought it would be good to hold them... But I've thought about it a lot and my feelings are a bit different now. Yes, they've spent their lives getting to this point. But holding the Olympics now is a situation that might not just change a few lives entirely, but many," said Yano. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are only two months away, but residents are deeply divided on whether they should go ahead mid-pandemic, after the Games were already delayed by a year due to COVID-19.

A fourth coronavirus wave, renewed state of emergency restrictions and an already stretched healthcare system have got many calling for the event to be cancelled. As a preventative measure, most foreigners are already banned from attending and a decision is still pending on domestic spectators.