Olympics: 500 foreign volunteers may be admitted for Tokyo Games

TOKYO, March 22 Kyodo - Around 500 foreign volunteers may be allowed into Japan under special entry rules to assist with the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, sources with knowledge of the matter said Monday. Local organizers have ruled out accepting volunteers from abroad, in principle, as a precaution to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, but could make an exception for roughly 500 people with specialized skills necessary for running the games. People whose roles cannot easily be performed by somebody living in Japan, such as experts in certain languages, will be selected from a pool of roughly 2,000 volunteers living overseas. According to the organizers, foreign nationals made up roughly 10 percent of a total 80,000 volunteers before the pandemic forced the one-year postponement of the games. The organizing bodies of the Olympics and Paralympics formally decided Saturday that the games will be staged without overseas spectators due to the pandemic. The government will consider ways to permit the entry of the specialist volunteers from overseas. Japanese citizens living outside Japan are expected to be allowed to volunteer. ==Kyodo