Condom manufacturers disappointed with Olympic Games restrictions

Since the 1988 Seoul Games, at each Olympic edition this contraceptive method is offered on a massive scale to promote the fight against sexually transmitted diseases, like AIDS.

While Tokyo-2020 organizers still hope to distribute 160,000 condoms among athletes, the strict distancing rules due to the coronavirus will be a real passion killer.

The Japanese climber Ken noguchi says that, faced with a still difficult health context, “I do not understand” why this free distribution of condoms is maintained.

As the organization of the Games explained to AFP, “The condoms distributed will not be intended for the Olympic village”, but intended “to be taken by the athletes in their respective countries” once the games are over.

The Japanese association of industrialists in the sector has assured that its polyurethane-based innovation will be excluded from this operation, in favor of traditional latex condoms,

A few years ago, the largest Japanese manufacturer of condoms, Sagami Rubber Industries, significantly increased its production capacity and opened a factory in Malaysia to meet the anticipated increase in demand during and after the Games.

Before the pandemic, Condomania condom stores in the Harajuku and Shibuya areas of the capital were popular with foreign tourists. But this clientele “practically disappeared”, with the closure of the Japanese borders to foreign visitors for more than a yearNegishi told AFP.

Condomania condoms were designed as souvenirs, with traditional motifs in the background, like the Great Wave off Hokusai and Mount Fuji, but “nothing sells anymore,” lamented a trader.

The activity was also weakened by the state of emergency imposed to face the health crisis, which consists of inviting the population to limit their movements. In this way, Japanese condom manufacturers will continue to depend on their domestic market.