Ticket holders in Japan unable to attend next year's postponed Tokyo Olympics will be able to apply for refunds from Nov. 10 to Nov. 30 through its official website, the local organizing committee said Friday.
Ticket refund applications for the Paralympics, also postponed for a year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, will be accepted from Dec. 1-21, the organizers said.
Tickets that have already been purchased remain valid in principle for the corresponding events. Refunds for tickets purchased in Japan will be made starting in late December for Olympic tickets and mid-January for Paralympic tickets.
In principle, refunds can be requested for each individual ticket, although group tickets, including those for wheelchair users and their escorts, must be refunded together. Fees for printing paper tickets and delivery will also be refunded.
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Those who purchased tickets using a Visa credit card will have the amount credited back to their account, while cash purchases at convenience stores will be reimbursed to the buyer by bank transfer. Once the refund process is completed on the website, it cannot be canceled.
The Tokyo organizing committee has sold roughly 4.48 million tickets for the Olympics and around 970,000 for the Paralympics through the official website.
Ticket holders outside of Japan, who bought tickets through Authorized Ticket Resellers, will be asked to follow those sellers' refund procedures, the organizers added.
The Japanese government and the organizers, meanwhile, are to make a careful decision regarding the number of spectators who will be allowed into events depending on how the pandemic develops prior to the games.
"We have not at all considered either canceling the games or holding them without spectators," organizing committee spokesman Masanori Takaya told a press conference.
The organizers said they will offer a separate opportunity for refunds if fewer spectators are allowed into venues than originally scheduled.
