Japanese Olympic Committee Official Reportedly Dies In Subway Incident

A senior official at the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) died on Monday morning after an incident on Tokyo’s subway, according to multiple reports.

The death is being treated as a suspected suicide, and private broadcaster Nippon Television reportedly identified the man as 52-year-old Yasushi Moriya.

The death is currently under investigation by Tokyo police, according to a police spokesperson, and a JOC representative said the committee was collecting information but did not give any further details. Police are treating the cases as a suicide.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation, a man fell on the tracks at around 9:30 a.m. at Nakanobu station on the Toei Asakusa Line in Tokyo. He was removed from the tracks 30 minutes later and transported to a nearby hospital, where he died approximately two hours later.

Despite an array of requests for the Games to be canceled due to the dire COVID-19 situation in Japan, where approximately 3.9% of the population has been fully vaccinated (compared to the worldwide average of 5.9%), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee continue to press forward.

Recently, 10,000 of the 80,000 volunteers registered for the Olympic and Paralympic Games rescinded their positions, though organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto insists 70,000 will be enough to run the Games smoothly.