The crisis of the Tokyo Olympics began earlier
The Games’ organizers say they have a responsibility to hold the event and “build a legacy” for society. But money, national pride and political obduracy are also important drivers.
01
‘Cursed’ Olympics Are Pressing Ahead
TOKYO — From the moment that Japan pitched to host the 2020 Olympic Games, its organizers have framed it as a symbol of recovery: from a decades-long economic slump, from a devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster and, after a year’s postponement, from a crippling pandemic.
Now, as the organizers press ahead with plans to hold the Tokyo Olympics this summer, the event itself threatens to become a trial from which Japan may take years to recover.
A series of health, economic and political challenges have besieged the Games. Even as the organizers decided last week to bar international spectators, epidemiologists warn that the Olympics could become a superspreader event.
Thousands of athletes and other participants will descend on Tokyo from more than 200 countries while much of the Japanese public remains unvaccinated.
02
undemocratic nature of Olympic decision-making
The financial hazards are also significant — the Olympic budget has swollen to a record $15.4 billion, increasing nearly $3 billion in the past year alone and adding to longstanding doubts about whether Olympic Games pay off for host nations.
And the Tokyo organizing committee has been swamped by leadership chaos, with both the president and creative director resigning over the past month after making sexist remarks.
Through it all, the fundamentally undemocratic nature of Olympic decision-making has grown only more glaring. With the Olympic torch relay set to begin on Thursday and the opening ceremony scheduled for July 23, Japan’s government is defying the wishes of much of the public. In polls, close to 80 percent say the Games should be postponed again or canceled outright.
“I don’t know any reason for why you would go out to watch these Olympic Games,” said Hyoung Min Yoo, 29, who works in finance in Tokyo. He had secured coveted tickets to swimming and track and field finals but now has no interest in getting anywhere near the Olympic Stadium or aquatics center. “I wish they could postpone the Olympics to the next next time,” he said.
03
historical currents are also important drivers
In the telling of the Olympic organizers, staging the Games this summer is something close to a moral imperative. The president of the Tokyo organizing committee, Seiko Hashimoto, recently cited the “significant challenges” facing the world and the responsibility of the Olympics “to build a legacy for the future society.”
But money, national pride and political obduracy are also at play.
The International Olympic Committee, which is sustained largely by selling broadcasting rights, stands to lose perhaps even more than Japan if the event is canceled. Already, the I.O.C. has struggled to entice bidders for future Olympic Games as cities have decided to avoid the hassle and cost.
In an effort to give itself breathing space, the I.O.C. broke with tradition in 2017 by simultaneously announcing the hosts of the next two Summer Olympics — Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles four years later. This month it picked Brisbane, Australia, as its favored candidate for the 2032 event.
Inside Japan, historical currents are also important drivers. The wartime cancellation of one Tokyo Olympics, in 1940, and the triumphant staging of another a quarter-century later are potent symbols of first regret and then rebirth. The seemingly unstoppable push toward the Olympics this time also reflects an often rigid Japanese bureaucracy, with some even drawing parallels to World War II, when the Japanese public did not want the conflict but no leader dared halt it.
04
The crisis Games long predated the pandemic
Whatever the outcome of the Games this summer, they could have profound ramifications for the entire Olympic movement, which has relied for decades upon an idealized promise of inspiration and civic pride to support enormous expenditures and increasingly onerous demands on host cities.
“When they say ‘the five rings,’ or if they show up with an Olympic symbol, they think they can command or demand anything,” said Satoko Itani, an associate professor of sports, gender and sexuality at Kansai University. “But people are increasingly saying ‘no.’”
“This could be a turning point” for organizers, Mx. Itani added. “Unfortunately, I don’t think they have realized it.”
The headaches for the Tokyo Summer Games long predated the pandemic. Two years after winning the bid, the government abandoned a sleek stadium design by a famous architect, Zaha Hadid, because the cost had ballooned to more than $2 billion. After work on a cheaper stadium design got underway, a construction supervisor died by suicide after overwork.
The organizers scrapped their first logo after plagiarism accusations. The president of Japan’s Olympic Committee was indicted on corruption charges related to the bidding process. Out of fears of extreme heat in Tokyo, the I.O.C. moved the marathon to Sapporo, on Japan’s northern island, 500 miles from the Olympic Stadium.
Taro Aso, the country’s finance minister, has described the Tokyo Olympics as “cursed.”
For Japan, the prospect of recouping its costs has grown only more distant, after the Tokyo organizing committee said on Saturday that it would not allow foreign spectators. Without these visitors, there is now little upside for hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions.
The organizers say that their focus is primarily on safety, and that they have earmarked $900 million in spending on measures to combat the virus. They have watched in recent weeks as other major sporting events — the Australian Open, the N.C.A.A. men’s and women’s basketball tournaments — have gone ahead. For the Games, some countries are pushing Olympians to the front of the vaccination line, and the I.O.C. has agreed to supply Chinese vaccines for those who need one.
05
Tokyo Olympics turbocharge
the virus’s spread
The organizers say vaccination will not be mandatory, however, and many athletes, delegates and others will be coming from places where vaccines are unlikely to be fully available. Japan itself will not start vaccinations for those over 65 until next month, and there has been no indication that athletes will be prioritized.
Infections and deaths in Japan have never spiraled to the levels seen in the United States or Europe, but the country is still recording more than 1,000 new infections each day and dozens of deaths. The Tokyo region was under a state of emergency until Sunday, and the country’s borders remain closed to most overseas visitors.
With more contagious and perhaps deadlier variants circulating around the globe, epidemiologists warn that the Tokyo Olympics have the potential to turbocharge the virus’s spread.
Controlling the pathogen will be “almost close to mission impossible,” said Dr. Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist at Kobe University Hospital. “Canceling the Olympic Games would be much easier.”
Rules proposed for the Olympic bubble depend largely on voluntary measures that have characterized Japan’s overall approach to the virus. While organizers promise regular testing during the Games, until recently Japan has been far more restrictive in offering coronavirus tests than many other countries.
Many athletes are young and likely to want to socialize once they finish competition. And more than 500 communities have agreed to host athletes for pre-competition training, another potential route for infections to spread.
Barbara G. Holthus, deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo and one of more than 110,000 Olympic volunteers, said training sessions had offered paltry measures to protect unvaccinated participants from infection. Volunteers are encouraged to wash their hands vigorously and remind visitors to wear masks, she said.
Nobuo Sato, 63, who owns a vegetable shop in Tokyo, said he feared that if the Olympics resulted in another coronavirus wave, it would further damage his business, which has suffered over the past year as orders from restaurants have declined sharply.
“I just don’t think they should risk the coronavirus spreading in any sense,” he said. “That won’t lead to things getting better. The faster the health situation gets better, the faster restaurants can reopen and the faster I can return to business as usual.”
Japan’s efforts to portray the Games as a symbol of triumph over the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, where the torch relay starts on Thursday, have also run into resistance. The nuclear cleanup there is far from complete.
“To use the word recovery — I am really opposed to it,” said Ayumi Iida, 36, a public relations official at a nonprofit in Onahama, about 40 miles south of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, where three reactors melted down a decade ago. “I am embarrassed to show the world this situation.”
Motokuni Takaoka, chief executive of Airweave, a company that has designed and produced 18,000 custom mattresses for the athletes’ village and is an Olympic sponsor, said that the Tokyo Games should proceed despite the challenges, because canceling the event would mean losing to China.
But if the Games do not go on, he said he did not regret the $50 million Airweave had invested in its new mattress design or the $9 million the company had reportedly contributed toward the Olympic budget each year since it signed on as a sponsor in 2016.
“If the Olympics cannot be held, as long as we are alive it is OK,” he said. Instead, he said, the company might be able to recoup its investments by providing mattresses for the Los Angeles Olympics — in 2028.
来源：CNN,BBC News,Washington Post,The Newyork Times，图片来源于网络，如侵删
编辑：俞梦婕监制：李璨
责任编辑：戴晨
《留学》推荐项目 | 你距离成为AI设计师只有一步逆境中成长，留学生的下一站是……
“春苗行动”在这些国家正式启动！当地中国公民可接种新冠疫苗
迈开脚步，一起细数留学旅程中的从A—Z《留学》推荐项目 | 来阿里，体验万物数字化时代的新媒体运营
纽约爆发万人游行，亚裔反歧视之路还要走多远
“中国创造了奇迹！” 世界看得见我们的进步
“后疫情时代”的个性化教学新标杆学校
《留学》推荐项目 | 涉足大湾区，体验国际创新科技
@留学生，报税季到了，你知道该怎么报税吗？
扫描二维码
关注
【留学事务所】
微信公众平台
点击下方图片，了解留学杂志↓↓↓
联系我们
读者热线：400-803-1977
商务合作WeChat：13716319877
关注留学行业最新消息
客观深入报道行业事件
提供有价值的优质服务
想你所想 为你而来
入驻光明网、网易、腾讯、今日头条、一点资讯等各大平台