The contract between the IOC and host city Tokyo is straightforward: There’s one article regarding cancellation and it only gives the option for the IOC to cancel, not for the host city.
That’s because the Olympic Games are the “exclusive property” of the IOC, international sports lawyer Alexandre Miguel Mestre told the BBC. And as the “owner” of the Games, it is the IOC that can terminate said contract.
One reason given to justify a cancellation - aside from things like war or civil disorder - is that if “the IOC has reasonable grounds to believe, in its sole discretion, that the safety of participants in the Games would be seriously threatened or jeopardised for any reason whatsoever”. Arguably, the pandemic could be seen as such a threat.
The Olympic charter also stipulates that the IOC should ensure “the health of the athletes” and promote “safe sports”, Mr Mestre says, but despite all this, the IOC seems determined to go ahead.
So could Japan go against the IOC and pull out itself?
“Under various clauses within this host city agreement, if Japan was to unilaterally cancel the contract, then by and large, the risks and losses would fall with the local organising committee,” Professor Jack Anderson at the University of Melbourne told the BBC.
