A report in the Times claimed that the Japanese government has "privately concluded" that the Olympics and Paralympics will have to be called off due to rising coronavirus rates, and that officials were now resigned to the idea of hosting the next available Games in 2032. 

But the IOC has backed the Japanese government’s strong rebuttal of the article, insisting the claims were “categorically untrue”. It added: “The IOC is fully concentrated on and committed to the successful delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 this year.”

Japan has already spent around £18bn of mostly taxpayer funds to organise the Games, but a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in the capital has turned the public against the event, with a recent survey revealing 80 per cent of Tokyo residents think the Olympics should not go ahead this summer. 

The Japanese government said on Friday: “We will be implementing all possible countermeasures against Covid-19 and will continue to work closely with the IOC, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in our preparations for holding a safe and secure Games this summer.”

Earlier this week a senior IOC member, Dick Pound, suggested the Games were likely to go ahead without fans present as an entirely TV-based spectacle. 

The IOC president, Thomas Bach, was also bullish about prospect of the Games going ahead, saying: “We have at this moment, no reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on the 23rd of July in the Olympic stadium in Tokyo,” He added there is "no Plan B".

The Games are scheduled to begin on 23 July after they were postponed by 12 months due to the pandemic.