'Not appropriate': Tokyo's governor slams London Olympic hosting offer

Tokyo's governor Yuriko Koike has hit out at the Shaun Bailey, the mayor who offered London to host this year's Tokyo Olympics due to the novel coronavirus epidemic. 

Also read: Tokyo Olympics CEO calls coronavirus concern 'irresponsible rumours'

On Wednesday, Tokyo's virology department said that holding the games 'now' will not be a wise decision and following this statement, London's mayor Shaun Bailey tweeted: "London can host the Olympics in 2020. We have the infrastructure and experience. And due to the coronavirus outbreak, the world might need us to step up."

He added: "As mayor, I will make sure London is ready to answer the call and host the Olympics again,". 

London has hosted the Olympics in  2012, 1948 and 1908. 

Japanese governor Koike blasted on Shaun Bailey's offer calling it "not appropriate to try to make it an issue in a mayoral election".

"A reason why this issue has attracted global attention is due to the cruise ship," she said, in reference to the Diamond Princess, a vessel in Japan that has seen more than 600 cases of coronavirus.

"But the cruise ship's nationality belongs to Britain," she said referring to the ship's registration. 

Earlier, Tokyo 2020 CEO Yoshiro Mori called scrapping of the games an "irresponsible rumour" during the meeting with top IOC (International Olympic Committee) officials. 

"With regards to the coronavirus... there are many irresponsible rumours but I would like to make it clear again that we are not considering postponing or cancelling the games," he said.

As the death toll in China's coronavirus rose to 2,233 on Friday, South Korea confirmed 52 more cases of the virus taking the overall figure to 156 in the country.