tokyo

Softball returns to the Olympics after a 13-year absence. But it won't be around for long. It's not on the schedule at the 2024 Games though athletes are hoping it'll make a return in 2028.

Growing alarm about the Tokyo Games resulting in a surge of coronavirus cases has pushed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to announce a new round of emergency measures.

Tokyo organizers on Saturday announced that foreign spectators will be barred from attending this year's Olympic and Paralympic Games due to concerns over COVID-19.

The Tokyo Olympic committee head plans to resign Friday amid a firestorm of criticism about his comments disparaging women's participation in organizing the Tokyo Games, say Japanese outlets.

Despite the efforts of Japanese and Olympic officials to quash the debate, pressure on the Games' organizing chief is mounting over his recent comments that women talk too much in board meetings.

"There are two things we worry about when entering a public restroom," an architect's firm says of the jewel-like toilets. "The first is cleanliness, and the second is whether anyone is inside."

The cost of moving the summer games to 2021 is expected to be massive. The International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday Japan would pay. Japanese officials said they didn't agree to foot the bill.

Despite the rescheduling, the next Olympics will still be known as the Tokyo 2020 games, the International Olympic Committee says.

The 2020 Games were supposed to begin in late July. "The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating," organizers say.