Japan and the Tokyo 2020+1 Olympics

Fifty-seven years ago, Tokyo held the opening of its first Olympic Games. It was a very important moment for Japan, a turning point as the Olympic Games saw the country emerge from the devastating consequences of World War II as a united and peaceful member of the international community, a global industrial power and an exporter. of high-quality technological goods.

Some 57 years later, as Tokyo prepares to host the Olympic Games in a post-coronavirus world, words like “rebirth” and “resistance” are once again up for grabs and on everyone’s lips. since this time Tokyo symbolizes the resistance of a world in the midst of a global pandemic.

In all of these sports, the spirit of “konjo” – roughly equal to “courage” or “never give up” – was given a new agency at the Tokyo Olympics in the minds of many Japanese.

In these and other ways, the 1964 Tokyo Olympics helped unify the Japanese population. Extensive television coverage helped create a sense of shared national experience, while video replays of the Olympics over the next few decades cemented the Games in national memory.

Although at this moment the opinions are found, with some asking that they be carried out and others demanding to postpone them, the decision of the Olympic Committee has been that they will be carried out with the conclusion of not allowing foreign spectators in the events this summer. For the safety of all the participants of the Games and the Japanese population. This decision has been fully respected and accepted by the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee as Japan has controlled the virus better than most countries and they fear that the arrival of hundreds of thousands of tourists will expose the local population to the coronavirus. . Tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games purchased by overseas residents from the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee will be refunded.

The president of the Tokyo 2020 Committee, Seiko Hashimoto, explained that plans are being made to share events and news “remotely” during the Olympic Games, although it has not been specified how this would be done. In many ways, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be very different from previous Olympic Games, although the essentials of the event will remain unchanged.