A senior official of the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) has reportedly committed suicide six weeks out from the start of the Games.
The official, named Yasushi Moriya, 52, was pronouced dead after jumping in front of a subway train on Monday at the Nakanobu Station on the Toei Asakusa Line in Shinagawa Ward.
The death comes as the Tokyo Olympic Games are set to go ahead in July, despite fears that holding the event during the COVID-19 pandemic is unsafe.
Moriya – whose body was identified by his work ID card, was the director of the accounting department for JOC. However, no suicide note was found on him even after being taken to a hospital.
Meanwhile, an Olympic committee representative said they were still gathering information about the incident late Monday, Nippon Television reported.
The games are set to get underway on July 23 and finish on August 8 and organisers insist the Olympic will go ahead as planned next month despite worries over variants of Covid and slow vaccinations drive.