Bach spent his first three days in isolation at the International Olympic Committee's five-star hotel in central Tokyo, and his movements in Tokyo are limited — like almost everyone entering for the Olympics — for the first 14 days.

Bach tripped over his words while addressing his Japanese hosts, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people” as he spoke.

“Our common target is safe and secure games for everybody; for the athletes, for all the delegations, and most importantly also for the Chinese people -- Japanese people," Bach said, catching his mistake quickly.

Bach's comments in the briefing were interpreted from English to Japanese, but the slip was not included in the interpretation. Still, much of the Japanese media quickly reported it and there was backlash on social media.