Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2168840
C. Tagsold
ABSTRACT When the manga series Akira appeared in 1982, it quickly became a bestseller, and the 1988 anime version strongly reinforced its popularity. Ōtomo Katsuhiro depicted the dark cityscape of Neo-Tokyo compellingly. However, until now, interpretations mainly focussed on Akira as a prime example of the cyberpunk genre. Yet, the story also revolves around the preparations for a renewed Olympics, celebrating the rebirth of Tokyo. By referencing the 1964 Games, Ōtomo paints a highly critical image of the first Tokyo Olympics, reflecting the mood of the early 1980s, when citizens vehemently opposed plans to host the Olympics in Nagoya. Ōtomo primarily employs some of the 1964 architecture to link Akira to the first Tokyo Olympics. For example, the Temple of Lady Miyako replicates Tange Kenzō's National Gymnasia next to the Meiji Shrine. Together with the new venue for the (Akira) Olympics in 2020, the Temple is one of the main action scenes, indicating that a spatial reading of the manga can yield fresh interpretations. Nevertheless, Akira's critical stance toward the Olympics did not prevent Ōtomo from contributing to the original plan for the 2020 Olympic opening ceremony, which featured characters from Akira to harness its popularity for the global Cool Japan factor. For these reasons, analyzing Akira's various Olympic dimensions help us better understand Japan's entanglement with this sports mega-event over the last decades. At the same time, a thorough Olympic reading of Akira is long overdue.
{"title":"Akira and the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and 2020/21: Reading the games through manga and anime—reading manga and anime through the games","authors":"C. Tagsold","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2168840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2168840","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT When the manga series Akira appeared in 1982, it quickly became a bestseller, and the 1988 anime version strongly reinforced its popularity. Ōtomo Katsuhiro depicted the dark cityscape of Neo-Tokyo compellingly. However, until now, interpretations mainly focussed on Akira as a prime example of the cyberpunk genre. Yet, the story also revolves around the preparations for a renewed Olympics, celebrating the rebirth of Tokyo. By referencing the 1964 Games, Ōtomo paints a highly critical image of the first Tokyo Olympics, reflecting the mood of the early 1980s, when citizens vehemently opposed plans to host the Olympics in Nagoya. Ōtomo primarily employs some of the 1964 architecture to link Akira to the first Tokyo Olympics. For example, the Temple of Lady Miyako replicates Tange Kenzō's National Gymnasia next to the Meiji Shrine. Together with the new venue for the (Akira) Olympics in 2020, the Temple is one of the main action scenes, indicating that a spatial reading of the manga can yield fresh interpretations. Nevertheless, Akira's critical stance toward the Olympics did not prevent Ōtomo from contributing to the original plan for the 2020 Olympic opening ceremony, which featured characters from Akira to harness its popularity for the global Cool Japan factor. For these reasons, analyzing Akira's various Olympic dimensions help us better understand Japan's entanglement with this sports mega-event over the last decades. At the same time, a thorough Olympic reading of Akira is long overdue.","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47830638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2175424
F. Waldenberger
Dear reader, Mega-events draw international attention. They also provide a prism or lens through which social, political and economic conditions and structures of the host nation become diffracted and more clearly visible. The Tokyo 2020–21 Olympic and Paralympic Games were no exception. Asked about what we associate with the games today, most of us will probably mention the COVID-19 pandemic. The games fell twice victim to the pandemic, first in 2020, when the mega-event had to be postponed, and second in 2021, when it was finally held without on-site spectators. For people living in Tokyo, it was a surreal experience. The games were shielded from them. They were turned into a pure media event. The pandemic changed Japan’s early enthusiasm for the games into opposition. Had there been a referendum, Tokyo 2020 might have been called off. But in the end, the Japanese and Tokyo metropolitan governments had to surrender to their contractual obligations dictated by the IOC. The research papers collected in this special issue look back from very different, but mostly critical angles: the planning phase of the games in the context of Tokyo’s urban development strategy; the rituals surrounding the games, the narratives created by them and their impact on the how the event will be remembered; the political polarization created by holding the event as seen in online communication channels; anti-Olympic activism in the context of Japan’s recent history of political protests; the ambiguous attitudes towards both the 1964 and the 2020 games as seen through the manga Akira and its creator Ōtomo Katsuhiro. Two articles attempt to explicitly evaluate the games. The first assesses success and failure by looking at various evaluation criteria and by examining different stakeholder groups. The second paper portrays the event as a manifestation of “capitalist realism” driven by financial interests. The research papers are complemented by two short commentaries, which point to various negative news surrounding the games including corruption charges. Again, this issue also contains book reviews. The topics of the four reviewed publications cover Japan’s earthquake resilience, coral reef conservation in Okinawa, and regional revitalization through urban-rural migration, entrepreneurship and internationalization. Let me finish with a positive note on the development of our journal. The journal continues to be accessible through more than 2,600 institutions via subscriptions and
{"title":"Message from the editor-in-chief","authors":"F. Waldenberger","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2175424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2175424","url":null,"abstract":"Dear reader, Mega-events draw international attention. They also provide a prism or lens through which social, political and economic conditions and structures of the host nation become diffracted and more clearly visible. The Tokyo 2020–21 Olympic and Paralympic Games were no exception. Asked about what we associate with the games today, most of us will probably mention the COVID-19 pandemic. The games fell twice victim to the pandemic, first in 2020, when the mega-event had to be postponed, and second in 2021, when it was finally held without on-site spectators. For people living in Tokyo, it was a surreal experience. The games were shielded from them. They were turned into a pure media event. The pandemic changed Japan’s early enthusiasm for the games into opposition. Had there been a referendum, Tokyo 2020 might have been called off. But in the end, the Japanese and Tokyo metropolitan governments had to surrender to their contractual obligations dictated by the IOC. The research papers collected in this special issue look back from very different, but mostly critical angles: the planning phase of the games in the context of Tokyo’s urban development strategy; the rituals surrounding the games, the narratives created by them and their impact on the how the event will be remembered; the political polarization created by holding the event as seen in online communication channels; anti-Olympic activism in the context of Japan’s recent history of political protests; the ambiguous attitudes towards both the 1964 and the 2020 games as seen through the manga Akira and its creator Ōtomo Katsuhiro. Two articles attempt to explicitly evaluate the games. The first assesses success and failure by looking at various evaluation criteria and by examining different stakeholder groups. The second paper portrays the event as a manifestation of “capitalist realism” driven by financial interests. The research papers are complemented by two short commentaries, which point to various negative news surrounding the games including corruption charges. Again, this issue also contains book reviews. The topics of the four reviewed publications cover Japan’s earthquake resilience, coral reef conservation in Okinawa, and regional revitalization through urban-rural migration, entrepreneurship and internationalization. Let me finish with a positive note on the development of our journal. The journal continues to be accessible through more than 2,600 institutions via subscriptions and","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42117386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2168838
Toake Endoh
{"title":"The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the removal of migrants","authors":"Toake Endoh","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2168838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2168838","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48854745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2171953
Sonja Ganseforth
ABSTRACT The Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021 will be remembered as the first Olympics to be postponed and held without in-person spectators during a global pandemic. The mega-event was also highly unpopular among the Japanese population in the weeks before the opening, but only a limited, yet consistent group of activists took to the streets to protest against it. Drawing on insights from ethnographic fieldwork at numerous protest events in Tokyo in the years 2019–2022, I analyze how the legacies of Tokyo 2020/1 are contested and evaluated from the activists’ perspective and what the implications are for the future of their activism and public protest in Japan in general. What are the legacies of Tokyo 2020/1 for Japanese social movements? Many of the activists’ more radical criticisms seem to lack connectivity with the wider public, which still maintains a safe distance to mass demonstrations. This alienation is likely exacerbated by the criminalizing effect of performative police repressions during demonstrations, legal prosecution of activists, and a lack of (fair) representation of protests in mainstream media. Therefore, I conclude that we cannot yet consider anti-Olympic activism the beginning of a new protest cycle in Japan. Nevertheless, it follows a resurgence of other protests in recent years against nuclear power, securitization, nationalism, and militarist policies. Its burgeoning transnational connections might lay the foundational groundwork for Japanese activist linkages with larger global movements that share similar concerns surrounding capitalist exploitation of humans and nature, climate crisis, and planetary environmental breakdown.
{"title":"Protesting legacies: Anti-Olympic movements in Japan before and after Tokyo 2020/1","authors":"Sonja Ganseforth","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2171953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2171953","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021 will be remembered as the first Olympics to be postponed and held without in-person spectators during a global pandemic. The mega-event was also highly unpopular among the Japanese population in the weeks before the opening, but only a limited, yet consistent group of activists took to the streets to protest against it. Drawing on insights from ethnographic fieldwork at numerous protest events in Tokyo in the years 2019–2022, I analyze how the legacies of Tokyo 2020/1 are contested and evaluated from the activists’ perspective and what the implications are for the future of their activism and public protest in Japan in general. What are the legacies of Tokyo 2020/1 for Japanese social movements? Many of the activists’ more radical criticisms seem to lack connectivity with the wider public, which still maintains a safe distance to mass demonstrations. This alienation is likely exacerbated by the criminalizing effect of performative police repressions during demonstrations, legal prosecution of activists, and a lack of (fair) representation of protests in mainstream media. Therefore, I conclude that we cannot yet consider anti-Olympic activism the beginning of a new protest cycle in Japan. Nevertheless, it follows a resurgence of other protests in recent years against nuclear power, securitization, nationalism, and militarist policies. Its burgeoning transnational connections might lay the foundational groundwork for Japanese activist linkages with larger global movements that share similar concerns surrounding capitalist exploitation of humans and nature, climate crisis, and planetary environmental breakdown.","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46050437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2168836
Jules Boykoff
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics demonstrated to the world that the Games are not too big to fail; instead, they may be too big to succeed, especially during a public-health pandemic. Tokyo bidders promised they’d be a “safe pair of hands” for the Games. However, the Olympics brought astronomical costs, greenwashing, displacement, security militarization, and corruption – problems that have become endemic to the Games in general. Tokyo 2020 was originally slated to cost $7.3 billion, but the price tag escalated to approximately four times that, according to a government audit in Japan. Postponement added billions more, bringing the total to around $30 billion. The Games created space for local developers to leverage the Olympic state of exception to relax longtime height restrictions on building in the neighborhood around the National Stadium, thereby prying open urban terrain for well-positioned developers. Games organizers also generated credible allegations of greenwashing: publicly displaying concern for the environment while in actuality doing the bare minimum, if anything, to make material ecological improvements. Tokyo 2020 boosters coined a “Recovery Olympics” mantra, vowing the Games would supercharge Fukushima’s rejuvenation after it was struck by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. The Tokyo Olympics incentivized a rushed process to return residents to Fukushima, regardless of public-health perils for the local population. Kowata Masumi, an elected official in Fukushima Prefecture’s Okuma Town, said Olympic construction actually slowed down Fukushima’s recovery. She stated in 2019, “The nuclear radiation is still very high. Only one small section is being cleaned. The wider region is still an evacuation zone. There is still radiation in the area. Meanwhile, we’re [hosting] the Olympics.” Before the Games started, social critic Koide Hiroaki framed the situation in clear moral terms: “The Tokyo Olympics will take place in a state of nuclear emergency. Those countries and people who participate will, on the one hand, themselves risk exposure, and, on the other, become accomplices to the crimes of this nation.” While Fukushima residents were encouraged to return to potentially unsafe spaces, the Olympics also displaced Tokyo inhabitants from their communities. The aforementioned change in zoning laws cleared a political path for the elimination of public housing units. More specifically, residents from the Kasumigaoka apartment complex, which sat in the
{"title":"The Tokyo 2020 Olympics: From a “safe pair of hands” to a corrupt pair of claws","authors":"Jules Boykoff","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2168836","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2168836","url":null,"abstract":"The 2020 Tokyo Olympics demonstrated to the world that the Games are not too big to fail; instead, they may be too big to succeed, especially during a public-health pandemic. Tokyo bidders promised they’d be a “safe pair of hands” for the Games. However, the Olympics brought astronomical costs, greenwashing, displacement, security militarization, and corruption – problems that have become endemic to the Games in general. Tokyo 2020 was originally slated to cost $7.3 billion, but the price tag escalated to approximately four times that, according to a government audit in Japan. Postponement added billions more, bringing the total to around $30 billion. The Games created space for local developers to leverage the Olympic state of exception to relax longtime height restrictions on building in the neighborhood around the National Stadium, thereby prying open urban terrain for well-positioned developers. Games organizers also generated credible allegations of greenwashing: publicly displaying concern for the environment while in actuality doing the bare minimum, if anything, to make material ecological improvements. Tokyo 2020 boosters coined a “Recovery Olympics” mantra, vowing the Games would supercharge Fukushima’s rejuvenation after it was struck by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. The Tokyo Olympics incentivized a rushed process to return residents to Fukushima, regardless of public-health perils for the local population. Kowata Masumi, an elected official in Fukushima Prefecture’s Okuma Town, said Olympic construction actually slowed down Fukushima’s recovery. She stated in 2019, “The nuclear radiation is still very high. Only one small section is being cleaned. The wider region is still an evacuation zone. There is still radiation in the area. Meanwhile, we’re [hosting] the Olympics.” Before the Games started, social critic Koide Hiroaki framed the situation in clear moral terms: “The Tokyo Olympics will take place in a state of nuclear emergency. Those countries and people who participate will, on the one hand, themselves risk exposure, and, on the other, become accomplices to the crimes of this nation.” While Fukushima residents were encouraged to return to potentially unsafe spaces, the Olympics also displaced Tokyo inhabitants from their communities. The aforementioned change in zoning laws cleared a political path for the elimination of public housing units. More specifically, residents from the Kasumigaoka apartment complex, which sat in the","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49395008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2169819
P. O'Shea, S. Maslow
ABSTRACT The Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics will go down in history as the 'Pandemic Games'. Postponed by a year due to Covid-19, they were eventually held despite broad public protest and amidst the Delta variant wave. Japan brought home a record haul of medals, yet Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide resigned in ignominy shortly after the Games ended. So, was Tokyo 2020/2021 a 'success' or a 'failure', and for whom? We examine the policy and politics of the Games, considering the attribution of 'success' and 'failure' to the Olympics across a range of issues, actors, and narratives. Reviewing their economic, public health, soft power, and political impact, we find that the Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics remain deeply ambiguous. Prime Minister Abe Shinzō’s vision of a proud, 'reborn' Japan showcasing itself to the world obviously did not come to pass; neither did the promise of a 'Recovery Olympics' aiding in the reconstruction of the post-3/11 Tohoku region. Conversely, the predictions of a COVID-19 catastrophe, of even an 'Olympic variant', also failed to transpire. Rather, the Olympics became a pared-down event forced through by vested interests, notably the IOC and Dentsu. The political fallout was contained by one-party dominance in Japan’s democracy, where even a forced mega-event during a pandemic was insufficient to threaten the Liberal Democratic Party’s stranglehold on power.
{"title":"The 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympics: Does Japan get the gold medal or the wooden spoon?","authors":"P. O'Shea, S. Maslow","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2169819","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2169819","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics will go down in history as the 'Pandemic Games'. Postponed by a year due to Covid-19, they were eventually held despite broad public protest and amidst the Delta variant wave. Japan brought home a record haul of medals, yet Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide resigned in ignominy shortly after the Games ended. So, was Tokyo 2020/2021 a 'success' or a 'failure', and for whom? We examine the policy and politics of the Games, considering the attribution of 'success' and 'failure' to the Olympics across a range of issues, actors, and narratives. Reviewing their economic, public health, soft power, and political impact, we find that the Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics remain deeply ambiguous. Prime Minister Abe Shinzō’s vision of a proud, 'reborn' Japan showcasing itself to the world obviously did not come to pass; neither did the promise of a 'Recovery Olympics' aiding in the reconstruction of the post-3/11 Tohoku region. Conversely, the predictions of a COVID-19 catastrophe, of even an 'Olympic variant', also failed to transpire. Rather, the Olympics became a pared-down event forced through by vested interests, notably the IOC and Dentsu. The political fallout was contained by one-party dominance in Japan’s democracy, where even a forced mega-event during a pandemic was insufficient to threaten the Liberal Democratic Party’s stranglehold on power.","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43364252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2171717
Yoshifusa Ichii
ABSTRACT This article explores how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) prioritised the hosting of the Olympic Games during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without doubt, the prioritisation of hosting the Olympic Games during the pandemic here substantiates what literary critic Mark Fisher has called 'capitalist realism'. This concept refers to a worldview that holds that there is no other way than capitalism for the society in which we live. I argue that the Olympic Games are a symbol of capitalist realism. To make this argument, I first summarize Fisher’s concept of capitalist realism and Jules Boykoff’s (2020) arguments that the Olympic Industry is first and foremost about perpetuating capitalism in the form of ‘celebration capitalism’. Following this, I describe how a 'new lifestyle’ or ‘new normal' has been imposed by the state and used to create a setting for holding the postponed Olympics in its entirely 'perfect form'. Next, I discuss the role of neoliberalism in facilitating a paradoxical relationship between the state and private industry. Building from this, I suggest that the relationship between new ways of life, celebration capitalism and neoliberalism is a constitutive part of capitalist realism aimed at ensuring the rule of capital at any cost, as demonstrated by the IOC's running of the Olympics despite the COVID-19 epidemic. At the same time, the running the Games also empowered the Japanese government to create a state of exception that enables them to pursue economic and political goals with unprecedented freedom by simultaneously circumscribing the freedom of its citizens.
{"title":"The capitalist realism of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games","authors":"Yoshifusa Ichii","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2171717","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2171717","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) prioritised the hosting of the Olympic Games during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without doubt, the prioritisation of hosting the Olympic Games during the pandemic here substantiates what literary critic Mark Fisher has called 'capitalist realism'. This concept refers to a worldview that holds that there is no other way than capitalism for the society in which we live. I argue that the Olympic Games are a symbol of capitalist realism. To make this argument, I first summarize Fisher’s concept of capitalist realism and Jules Boykoff’s (2020) arguments that the Olympic Industry is first and foremost about perpetuating capitalism in the form of ‘celebration capitalism’. Following this, I describe how a 'new lifestyle’ or ‘new normal' has been imposed by the state and used to create a setting for holding the postponed Olympics in its entirely 'perfect form'. Next, I discuss the role of neoliberalism in facilitating a paradoxical relationship between the state and private industry. Building from this, I suggest that the relationship between new ways of life, celebration capitalism and neoliberalism is a constitutive part of capitalist realism aimed at ensuring the rule of capital at any cost, as demonstrated by the IOC's running of the Olympics despite the COVID-19 epidemic. At the same time, the running the Games also empowered the Japanese government to create a state of exception that enables them to pursue economic and political goals with unprecedented freedom by simultaneously circumscribing the freedom of its citizens.","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41265004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2195312
David Chiavacci, Iris Wieczorek
ABSTRACT What was and what will remain of the Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games? This special issue brings together assessments from different perspectives regarding diverse aspects of the impact and legacy of Tokyo’s second Summer Olympics. It is safe to say that Tokyo 2020/2021, as the COVID-19 games, did not fully achieve what the Japanese organizers had hoped it would. On the contrary, the Olympic dream of 2020 was postponed and met quite substantial opposition. This introduction discusses the main findings of the contributions and places them in the larger context. The focus is on four aspects of Tokyo 2020/2021: 1) the Olympics as a political project of the conservative establishment and former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō; 2) critical perspectives on the Olympics as a mega event; 3) social movements and protests against the Olympics; 4) impact of the Olympics on technological innovation and city infrastructure.
{"title":"Tokyo Olympics 2020: Between dream and contention","authors":"David Chiavacci, Iris Wieczorek","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2195312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2195312","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT What was and what will remain of the Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games? This special issue brings together assessments from different perspectives regarding diverse aspects of the impact and legacy of Tokyo’s second Summer Olympics. It is safe to say that Tokyo 2020/2021, as the COVID-19 games, did not fully achieve what the Japanese organizers had hoped it would. On the contrary, the Olympic dream of 2020 was postponed and met quite substantial opposition. This introduction discusses the main findings of the contributions and places them in the larger context. The focus is on four aspects of Tokyo 2020/2021: 1) the Olympics as a political project of the conservative establishment and former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō; 2) critical perspectives on the Olympics as a mega event; 3) social movements and protests against the Olympics; 4) impact of the Olympics on technological innovation and city infrastructure.","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41990008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2169856
A. Niehaus
ABSTRACT Mega sport events like the Olympic Games leave their marks on hosting nations and often become important lieux de mémoire in the history of a nation. In this article, I will analyze the Tokyo 2020 torch relay as a highly ritualistic and highly choreographed act that creates a space of and for symbolic practices and performances, and I will use it as a case study to show how the torch relay contributes to the creation of an Olympic legacy in Japan. My argument is divided into four sections. In each section, I will focus on a different area of the “microcosm of the torch relay” to shed light on chosen official strategies and efforts of Japanese politics, the IOC, the JOC, and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee to create a 2020 Olympics narrative and future legacies. At the same time, I will challenge these efforts, strategies, and practices in terms of underlying intentions, hidden agendas, their impact and (failed) success by examining some of the many obstacles, opposing voices, and counter-narratives along the way of the torch relay, as well as how the micro-narratives of individual torch bearers may be the most enduring memories of the Tokyo 2020 torch relay.
{"title":"“I want to bring this light to those in despair” – the Tokyo 2020 torch relay and the creation of Olympic legacies","authors":"A. Niehaus","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2169856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2169856","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Mega sport events like the Olympic Games leave their marks on hosting nations and often become important lieux de mémoire in the history of a nation. In this article, I will analyze the Tokyo 2020 torch relay as a highly ritualistic and highly choreographed act that creates a space of and for symbolic practices and performances, and I will use it as a case study to show how the torch relay contributes to the creation of an Olympic legacy in Japan. My argument is divided into four sections. In each section, I will focus on a different area of the “microcosm of the torch relay” to shed light on chosen official strategies and efforts of Japanese politics, the IOC, the JOC, and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee to create a 2020 Olympics narrative and future legacies. At the same time, I will challenge these efforts, strategies, and practices in terms of underlying intentions, hidden agendas, their impact and (failed) success by examining some of the many obstacles, opposing voices, and counter-narratives along the way of the torch relay, as well as how the micro-narratives of individual torch bearers may be the most enduring memories of the Tokyo 2020 torch relay.","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43074641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2023.2169462
A. Faure
ABSTRACT This study examines the coherence between the Tokyo Olympic urban project, the national urban planning strategies, and the metropolitan and sub-metropolitan policies. The objective is to understand how the wards are integrated in the definition and design of the Olympic project by questioning the available urban planning tools. This paper shows that the Olympic project is fundamentally top-down and does not take into account the objectives of the wards, while it also seeks to finalize urban strategies decided at the national level from the 1980s. The paper examines 25 strategic documents and urban planning documents in English and Japanese in order to trace the evolution of urban planning choices. The result of the study confirms that it is important for the Olympic movement to reform the preparatory phase of the event, in particular by lengthening the period between the election of the host city and the delivery of the Games, while including more strongly all the public actors and not only the institution signing the host city contract.
{"title":"How the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were embedded in urban planning documents: The enforcement of a metropolitan strategy in the Bay Area","authors":"A. Faure","doi":"10.1080/18692729.2023.2169462","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2023.2169462","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study examines the coherence between the Tokyo Olympic urban project, the national urban planning strategies, and the metropolitan and sub-metropolitan policies. The objective is to understand how the wards are integrated in the definition and design of the Olympic project by questioning the available urban planning tools. This paper shows that the Olympic project is fundamentally top-down and does not take into account the objectives of the wards, while it also seeks to finalize urban strategies decided at the national level from the 1980s. The paper examines 25 strategic documents and urban planning documents in English and Japanese in order to trace the evolution of urban planning choices. The result of the study confirms that it is important for the Olympic movement to reform the preparatory phase of the event, in particular by lengthening the period between the election of the host city and the delivery of the Games, while including more strongly all the public actors and not only the institution signing the host city contract.","PeriodicalId":37204,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Japan","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43220427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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