Overseas spectators will be barred from the Tokyo Olympics, which will happen between July 23 and August 8, and the Tokyo Paralympics, which will take place between August 24 and September 5, announced organizers on Saturday.

This has never happened in Olympic history, but so was the postponement last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A remote meeting was held among Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Tokyo Olympic chief Seiko Hashimoto, International Paralympic Committee (IPC) boss Andrew Parsons, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Japan's Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa before the statement was released.

"In order to give clarity to ticket holders living overseas and to enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage, the parties on the Japanese side have come to the conclusion that they will not be able to enter into Japan at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said the Tokyo 2020 organizing body in a statement.

Both the IOC and the IPC "fully respect and accept this conclusion," said the statement. "We have to take decisions which may need sacrifice from everybody and we have to ask for understanding," said Bach.

In early March, Kyodo News reported that the Japanese government had decided to prohibit overseas fans from attending the Olympics and the Paralympics as part of their efforts to prevent the coronavirus from further spreading. The Tokyo Olympic committee denied the report back then because it still needed to discuss the issue with other parties involved including the IOC and the IPC before a final decision was made.

In less than two weeks, the official decision was made.

"Based on the present situation of the pandemic, it is highly unlikely that entry into Japan will be guaranteed this summer for people from overseas. The parties on the Japanese side have come to the conclusion that they (overseas fans) will not be able to enter into Japan at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said the statement.

Governor Koike called the decision "very unfortunate."

As reported before, the delay will raise the cost of holding the Tokyo Olympics to at least 1.64 trillion yen ($15 billion). Now that ticket refunds will inevitably happen to overseas fans, the expected 90 billion yen ($827 million) of ticket sale revenues will drop sharply. Kyodo News calculated that about one million tickets have been sold to overseas spectators.