TOKYO (Kyodo) -- TV viewership for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics averaged 56.4 percent in the capital and its surrounding areas, an audience ratings firm said Monday.

       Video Research Ltd. said the preliminary rating for public broadcaster NHK's live broadcast of the ceremony, held in the spectatorless National Stadium on Friday, in the Kanto region in eastern Japan compared with 61.2 percent for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony.

       With Tokyo under a fourth COVID-19 state of emergency and organizers having decided to ban spectators at venues, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has called on the public to cheer athletes at home on TV.

       But attitudes remain mixed in Japan regarding whether the Olympics and Paralympics should be going ahead amid the pandemic, with health experts warning of the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus first detected in India.

       In a nationwide poll conducted by Kyodo News ahead of the opening ceremony, 71 percent of respondents said they were looking forward to the games, while 87 percent were worried the event will trigger a fresh surge in infections.

       A string of scandals involving games officials has further sapped enthusiasm for the first Summer Olympics on home ground since 1964.

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