Most Americans think the Tokyo Olympics should go forward

Although Japan is lagging behind much of the industrialized world when it comes to rolling out vaccines for the coronavirus, most American nevertheless think the Tokyo Summer Olympics — already postponed from a year ago — should take place as scheduled. Fifty-eight percent of Americans think the games should go on this summer, while 34% think they should be postponed or canceled.

And if the games do go on, Americans want the U.S. to participate. Three in 4 Americans think U.S. athletes should take part in the Tokyo games if they go on as scheduled. Even 41% of those who think the games should be postponed or canceled nevertheless think U.S. athletes should participate if the games go forward this summer in Tokyo as planned.

This poll was conducted by telephone June 8-13, 2021 among a random sample of 1,008 adults nationwide.  Data collection was conducted on behalf of CBS News by SSRS of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cellphones.

The poll employed a random digit dial methodology. For the landline sample, a respondent was randomly selected from all adults in the household. For the cell sample, interviews were conducted with the person who answered the phone.

 Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish using live interviewers. The data have been weighted to reflect U.S. Census figures on demographic variables. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus 3.5 points. The error for subgroups may be higher and is available by request. The margin of error includes the effects of standard weighting procedures which enlarge sampling error slightly. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.