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Japan, IOC agree to postpone Olympics to no later than summer 2021

The news comes a day after an IOC member said there would be a postponement.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers his policy speech at the lower house of the parliament on January 20, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese Diet convened a 150-day ordinary session today. Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

UPDATE: The IOC and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee released a joint statement announcing the postponement:

In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are going to be postponed until no later than summer 2021, according to NHK World News. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and IOC President Thomas Bach agreed on the postponement a day after Dick Pound told USA Today the IOC was planning on postponing the Summer Games due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The International Olympic Committee had held out moving the Games, but pressure has been building from a variety of countries. Numerous countries submitted letters for the Games to be postponed, and over the weekend Canada’s Olympic Committee announced they would not send their athletes to Tokyo if the Summer Games were held in late July as planned.