Canceling Olympics is difficult. Whoever cancels it, has to pay hefty fine, either the host or the Olympic committee. The pandemic is sadly not the valid reason to cancel them, at least not in committee's eyes, so Japan was strong handed here.

Japan could have just said no to the Olympics, not paid the fine and told the IOC exactly where to put the contract.

Hosting the games ends up costing the host countries more money anyway so if IOC skips over them in the future...so what?

E: this assumes the fine isn't already in escrow

That could have led to Japan being banned from the Olympics until the fine is paid.

Could have, but this would have been a really bad look for the Olympic Committee, and it's very possible they would have preferred to waive the fine.

Beyond a certain point, fines become a game of political chicken.

Couldn’t they just compete anyways as the “Japanese Olympic Committee?”

eh.

If you left the pandemic decisions to a majority vote, most places would be fully open by now.

I don't know about your country, but every month from January to June (the latest data I found) a large majority of Germans polled believed the measures to fight COVID were appropriate or didn't go far enough. https://de.statista.com/infografik/23810/umfrage-zur-angemes...

I’m not sure what country you’re basing this on, but in the US the 2020 election felt like a repudiation of the more liberalized COVID-19 policies of the Trump administration.