Will the postponed Tokyo Olympics open despite rising opposition and the pandemic?

The answer is almost certainly “yes.”

Senior International Olympic Committee member Richard Pound was emphatic in an interview with a British newspaper.

“Barring Armageddon that we can’t see or anticipate, these things are a go,” Pound told the Evening Standard.

Tokyo is under a COVID-19 state of emergency, but IOC Vice President John Coates has said the games will open on July 23 — state of emergency, or no state of emergency.

As an exclamation point, Australia’s softball team — the first major group of athletes from abroad to set up an Olympic base in Japan — arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday.

So the Olympics are barreling ahead. But why?

Start with billions of dollars at stake, a contract that overwhelmingly favors the IOC, and a decision by the Japanese government to stay the course, which might help Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga keep his job.