Organisers show off Olympic village a month before Games begin

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics opened the athletes’ village to the media on Sunday, showing off apartments and a timber-laced shopping plaza where 11,000 athletes would stay and mingle during the sporting extravaganza.

The once-delayed Games are due to start on July 23 amid concern that the influx of thousands of people from around the world would contribute to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Japan has avoided the kind of explosive outbreaks that crippled many other countries. But its vaccination program has been slow and the medical system pushed to the brink in parts of the country. The government’s drive to hold the Games has been criticized by hospitals and doctors’ unions.

Underscoring the concern, a Ugandan athlete arriving in Japan for a preparation camp ahead of the Olympics late on Saturday was found to be infected with the virus, public broadcaster NHK said.

Athletes will be shuttled in and out of the village and be tested for the coronavirus every day. Olympic rules ban singing and chanting during events and require athletes to wear masks at all times except when outdoors, sleeping, or eating.

The shopping area of the village features an automatic teller machine, dry cleaner, post office, bank, and courier counter.

“Where you can see bare light bulbs, we’ll install lanterns to give the area a bit more of a traditional Japanese feel,” Yoshie Ogawa, a director at the Tokyo 2020 marketing bureau, said at the start of the media tour.

The wooden plaza, which draws on Japanese minimalist design aesthetics, follows the Tokyo 2020 theme of using timber in the construction of Olympics venues, including the National Stadium.

The 2.4 billion yen ($21.8 million) shopping area was made from 40,000 pieces of timber donated by 63 Japanese municipal governments. Each donated piece is marked with the name of the area that provided the wood.

After the Olympics, it will be dismantled and the timber returned to the donating cities for reuse in local facilities.

The apartment complex abutting the shopping plaza was built on reclaimed land and designed to house about 12,000 people in 23 buildings. It includes shops, a park, and a school. The buildings will be converted into flats after the Olympics.

The development of the housing project cost the Tokyo government 54 billion yen, including road work and infrastructure.

Organizers were originally planning to feed residents of the village in vast dining halls – the largest with a capacity to seat 4,500 people.

But now, organizers will ask athletes to dine alone, maintain social distancing with others, and wipe down surfaces after eating to curb the spread of the virus.