UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Gives Thumbs Up To Tokyo Olympics

The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson has reportedly given the thumbs up to Tokyo’s efforts to move ahead with the delayed 2020 Olympics later this year despite concerns from around the globe about the event possibly worsening the spread of the coronavirus.

Tokyo’s purpose built National Stadium was set to host the Olympics C: Arne Müseler

In a telephone conversation with his opposite number in Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Mr. Johnson is understood to have also agreed to joint efforts with Japan in areas pertaining to fighting the pandemic as well as helping in the global battle against a worsening climate.

A virtual summit of the world’s Group of Seven industrialized nations will be hosted by the UK tomorrow in London, and will include Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Sates in addition to Japan and the UK.

Reports from Japan also suggest the UK will host a real-time in-person meeting of the G-7 some time in June.

The frequent Chinese intrusions into Japanese waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea near Okinawa were also a subject of conversation between the two leaders of their respective nations’ centre-right governments, as was London’s desire to join the much lauded Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Britain has already put in an formal bid to join the TPP and its 11 Pacific Rim member nations – of which Japan is currently the most influential in terms of economic might.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.