China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Cooling issue
Scorching summer in Tokyo to test 2020 Olympic Games
TOKYO — A heat wave in Japan that has killed more than a dozen people is reviving concerns about the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which will be held during the country’s notoriously sweltering summer.
While the Games have been held in places that are hotter or more humid than Tokyo, including Athens and Beijing, Japan’s sweaty summers offer both blistering heat and smothering humidity in a particularly unpleasant, and sometimes deadly, combination.
Olympic officials and Tokyo’s local government are touting measures from solarblocking paint on roads to mobile misting stations to tackle the heat.
But some experts fear the efforts are insufficient, in a country where summer heat kills hundreds of people and hospitalizes tens of thousands each year.
The Games will be held from July 24-August 9, a period where temperatures can hit 37 C and humidity rises to over 80 percent.
“Compared to past Olympics, it’s fair to say that this will be the most severe Games, as far as heat conditions go,” said Makoto Yokohari, a professor of urban engineering at the University of Tokyo.
The International Olympic Committee has approved moving the marathon start to 7 am, with the men’s competitive walking beginning even earlier.
And Tetsuo Egawa, senior director of operation strategy planning for Tokyo 2020’s organizing committee, is working on other ways to beat the heat.
“The sports that tend to raise the most concern are the non-stadium ones,” he said, citing the marathon, sailing and canoeing, and golf as examples where “special measures” will be needed.
The main concern is heatstroke, particularly among spectators unused to hot weather who will spend hours outdoors watching events or queuing.
“We will have tents covering queues at security gates ... (and) we are aiming to limit lines to 20 minutes long,” Egawa said.
Dangerous conditions
Large fans will cool people down and the new national stadium has been constructed to encourage air flow. Medical tents and rest areas will be air-conditioned.
Stress can increase the risk of heatstroke, so organizers will try to keep spectators relaxed even in queues.
“There may be small shows and entertainment ... maybe shows that involve spraying mist on people,” Egawa said.
But not everyone is convinced, with some noting that when Tokyo last hosted the Olympics, in 1964, the Games were held in October to avoid the heat.
Yokohari has studied the marathon route and warns that “athletes will run in very dangerous conditions”, particularly in the last quarter of the race when they pass Tokyo’s Imperial Palace.
“I believe athletes will feel significant damage to their bodies in this phase,” he said.
“There is absolutely no shade.”
Meanwhile, the official mascots for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled at a ceremony in downtown Tokyo on Sunday.
The mascot for the Olympics is named Miraitowa while the Paralympic mascot will be known as Someity.
Miraitowa is a combination of the Japanese words for future and eternity while Someity comes from a popular cherry blossom variety “Someiyoshino” and echoes the English phrase “so mighty”.
The two mascot designs were selected by elementary schoolchildren across Japan.