An impossible choice

Follow Us Get the newsletter Hordes of foreign tourists would flock to Tokyo for the Olympics, marveling at a confident Japan that had bounced back from a devastating tsunami to take its place on the world stage. That was the picture then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe painted when the Japanese capital was picked to host the Games back in 2013. But just months before the country's big 2020 comeback party was set to begin, it was postponed by a year over the Covid-19 outbreak. And now there is the question of whether it should be held at all. The pandemic has laid bare Japan's shortcomings — not least a failure to move quickly to vaccinate its people against the coronavirus. Few Japanese want to go ahead with the Olympics, now less than two months away. Business leaders are as hostile as the general public, with Hiroshi Mikitani, billionaire founder of e-commerce company Rakuten Group, comparing it to a "suicide mission." One of the country's most influential newspapers, itself an Olympic sponsor, urged Abe's successor, Yoshihide Suga, to call it off. The once-popular premier has seen support slump in recent weeks, with polls showing the public doesn't see the Olympics as compatible with an effective virus response. That leaves Suga with an almost impossible choice. He can press ahead with a shrunken event, without spectators from overseas or possibly even domestic fans. Or he could cancel it, wrecking sports careers, triggering a further economic hit that Nomura Research Institute economist Takahide Kiuchi put at more than $16 billion, and risking embarrassment as neighbor and rival China presses ahead with its own plans for the Winter Olympics a few months later. His dilemma is not an enviable one. — Isabel Reynolds A demonstration against the Olympic Games in Tokyo on Monday. Photographer: Carl Court/Getty Images Click here to follow Bloomberg Politics on Facebook and tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net. Global Headlines U.S.-Russia summit | Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit on June 16 in Geneva, amid tensions over cyberattacks, Ukraine, sanctions and strategic armaments. The U.S. wants to "restore predictability and stability" to relations, the White House said. The talks offer a chance to remove "irritants" from ties, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, adding "it won't be easy." The European Union's air-safety regulator told carriers to avoid flying over Belarus, saying the diversion of a Ryanair flight on Sunday raised doubts about the eastern European nation's respect for international aviation rules. Firing line | Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces further public criticism from ex-aide Dominic Cummings, who departed in acrimony in November and is giving evidence today to lawmakers investigating the U.K.'s pandemic response. Cummings says ministers and officials "disastrously" failed the public when people needed them most. For Johnson, the risk is the testimony tarnishes his recent record of a successful vaccine rollout. The government was forced to backtrack over its bid to restrict travel to virus hotspots in England where the variant first detected in India is spreading. Alternate universe | Donald Trump's allies have built a network of think tanks, fund-raising outfits and professional development organizations to push his populist agenda for years to come. As Bill Allison reports, the aim is to transform the former U.S. president's unorthodox preferences into a coherent program to challenge the traditional conservative groups that have guided generations of Republicans. The number of births per woman in South Korea sank to a record low 0.84 last year, and by 2050, the United Nations estimates that its share of elderly people will be the largest in the world. The demographic squeeze has grim implications for the economy, but it's not unique: Globally, 1 in 6 people will be over age 65 by 2050, compared with 1 in 11 last year. Back in the fold | Cities lie in ruins, the economy is collapsing and more than half the population has been displaced, but Bashar al-Assad is poised to win a fourth seven-year term in today's presidential elections after Syria's decade of war. Although the vote has been dismissed as a sham by the U.S. and Europe, Lin Noueihed and Selcan Hacaoglu report Assad's rehabilitation with other Arab states has been bolstered by a broader Middle East realignment. Dark memories | The slaughter of villagers in a remote valley is roiling Peru's election campaign by reviving memories of political murders from the nation's recent past. Leftist presidential front runner Pedro Castillo said his opponents were using the killings to try and undermine his candidacy in the lead-up to the June 6 vote, Maria Cervantes and Matthew Bristow explain. What to Watch Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues his tour of the Middle East after pledging to help Palestinian leaders rebuild and reaffirming the U.S. alliance with Israel. Biden is under pressure to replace Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Randal Quarles when his term expires in October following the rollback of banking rules that drew criticism from Democrats. European governments are increasingly confident a deal will soon be struck with the U.S. on a minimum global corporate tax and measures to make companies pay more to countries they operate in. Mali's military vice president fired interim civilian leaders meant to prepare for elections in a move that's being described as the West African nation's second coup in less than a year. The head of Ethiopia's army asked neighboring Eritrea to withdraw its troops from its territory, where they've been involved in the deadly conflict in the northern Tigray region. And finally ... After securing billions of dollars of investment and millions of doses of vaccines from China, there's little doubt Serbia has gravitated more toward the east than west during the pandemic. Now there's a campaign to thank China's president by building a statue to "Comrade Xi." Reminiscent of the communist era, the proposal is a curious gesture for a country struggling to secure membership in the EU, which is still by far the biggest investor and trading partner for the Balkan nation. A billboard depicting China's president saying "Thank you brother Xi" in Belgrade last year. 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