In the Japanese capital’s on-going quest for the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo governor and chairman of the bid, Naoki Inose, sadly proved with his slight against Muslims that many attitudes in Japan are nowhere near as modern as the games Tokyo would like to host.
Thankfully, however, the city itself is. Sort of.
Hans ter Horst says
I lived through the Olympic Games in London, I know it was a great success, especially for the UK with all the gold medals but it was less fun living in the city during this time with all the traffic jams and clogged up public transport. The IOC is the only one making money of the Games and everything is geared towards the sponsors whose interests sort of take the whole town hostage. London lost a lot of money on it, the TV rights everybody is telling you about are pocketed mostly by the IOC. Japan and Tokyo have plenty of motorways to nowhere to build from tax money, so they don’t need to spend a lot of money on stadiums nobody uses after the Games.
So, for the sake of the people in Tokyo, I do hope that Naoki Inose blew it (but what an idiots these Japanese politicians) 🙂
Lee says
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Despite that though, a part of me would still like Tokyo to get the nod. There’s nothing quite like having such a huge global event on your doorstep. But that said, whether it is genuinely worth it is another thing altogether…
Jeffrey says
That was my thought as well. Will Abe/Inose use the games as an excuse for slum clearing and Japan really isn’t a very sport oriented country. If they build another stadium for track and field will it go mostly unused as does the old, still standing Olympic Stadium from ’64? What will they do with a new competitive swimming and diving facility in a country that won’t even open school pools in the Fall when it’s still in the 80s and 90s? And, the biggest waste of money, what will they do with the artificial rapid tracks need for competitive kayaking and the like (if there were a group of events that needed to go . . . )?
The Greeks are about as non-sports as the Japanese, so there’s your real model of what is likely to happen to all the new-built athletic facilities.
Twofer, Lee: My uncalled for political commentary and Greek haikyo!
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/46742/haunting-photos-of-athens-eight-years-after-the-olympics/
Lee says
Cheers for the link. Pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
The Japanese government is also very capable of wasting vast sums of money at the best of times, so heaven knows how they’d get through with an Okympics to splurge on.
Not sure I agree with you about Japan not being a sport loving country though. There’s plenty of professionals sport, plus even more amateur athletes.
Jeffrey says
Lee,
There really are only two-and-one-half professional sports – baseball, soccer (football to you) and, what, sumo (which isn’t really a sport)? The stupidly named BJ, Japanese basketball league? The yakuza connected bike racing? Figure skating, which while athletic, isn’t a sport? Three decent tennis players over the last 30 years or so. Ditto with golfers (also not a sport but a game).
I suppose my perspective is different as a citizen of the most sport obsessed nation on Earth, but there really aren’t all that many outlets for amateurs in Japan the way I see it.
Lee says
That’s very true. And yes, even more so when compared to many other countryies. In many ways my view is probably skewed somewhat, as working in a high school I see and hear about sports all the time. Plus cycling along the river I see lots of tennis and baseball being played. But neither are arguably representative of the country as a whole.
MrSatyre says
Oh, thank God! You found the welcome center!
Lee says
Haha! Complete with a fax too!
Andy says
I consider Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to be the most important person not only in the recent history of the world, but in the whole of human history.
He almost managed to pull out a whole country out of silly superstious religion shit!
Sadly, even Turkey seems to get pulled back into the dark ages recently.
Istanbul is a great city – but it gets more and more tainted by folks that want to pull it back to dehumanizing levels claiming some shitty deity.
Actually the whole world would be a much better place if we just put that stupid shit of Christian/Muslim/Jew religion down the drain!