Games delay puts Japanese in a flat spin
Event back to square one with added costs
TOKYO: Japan’s media and athletes reacted with disappointment yesterday to the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but expressed relief the Games had not been cancelled altogether over the coronavirus pandemic.
The postponement, unprecedented in peacetime, came after heavy pressure from athletes around the world and followed an admission from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that a delay was now “inevitable”.
But there was still shock and disappointment in Japan, where the Games were promoted as the “Recovery Olympics”, intended to showcase reconstruction after the devastating 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The Nikkei business daily said Japan had avoided the worst-case scenario of a cancellation, but “it is like all the efforts of the last seven years are now back to square one”.
“It is inevitable that huge additional costs will emerge,” it added.
The Tokyo Shimbun headlined its coverage “surprise and embarrassment”, but conceded in an article that the situation left organisers and Olympic officials with few options.
“Choosing a one-year postponement was a decision taken by a process of elimination,” the paper said, with an Olympics this year seen as too risky and a longer delay to 2022 likely to be too expensive.
The newspaper expressed disappointment with the way the International Olympic Committee (IOC) handled the decision, clinging for weeks to the line that the Games could still open as scheduled on July 24, before reversing course.
“We didn’t see the strong leadership that had been hoped for,” the paper said.
Athletes in Japan said they were disappointed, but committed to training towards the rescheduled Games.
“Honestly speaking, my mind is still spinning,” sports climber Akiyo Noguchi wrote in a post on her Instagram page.
“But I’m taking it positively since I’ll be able to spend more time doing the sport I love,” added Noguchi, who plans to make the Tokyo Games her last Olympics.
“I will spend the time I have been given to be stronger both physically and mentally,” she added. “For now, I hope the world will overcome this situation as soon as possible, and that the Olympics will be held in Tokyo.”
Jun Mizutani, the 30-year-old Japanese table tennis player who competed at the Beijing, London and Rio Games, reacted lightheartedly to the news, tweeting a digitally aged photo of himself with the message: “I can do it”.
Athletes and sports associations around the world had pushed for the move given the effects the virus has had on everything from qualifiers to training, so the final decision was far from a shock.
“We were ready as the mood for postponement was growing,” Toshihisa Tsuchihashi of the Japan Tennis Association told the Nikkan sports daily. “I think it’s a wise decision. I guess players will have mixed feelings, but I believe they will reset and do their best. I’ll support them.”
MOTLEY CREW OF DISCONTENTS For many in Japan, the postponement of the Olympics is a heartbreaking necessity.
But for a small and motley crew opposed to the Games altogether, it doesn’t go far enough.
“Damn it! We absolutely reject postponement. The Olympics should be cancelled and abolished,” an umbrella group of anti-Games activists tweeted after the historic delay to the 2020
Olympics was announced.
Just minutes before Tuesday’s dramatic decision, triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, a handful of activists gathered in central Tokyo holding one of their regular protests against the Games.
“We’ve been doing a monthly rally for various reasons. One of the things that most annoys me is the commercialism of the event,” said 59-year-old Toshio Miyazaki, standing with protesters holding signs reading: “We are opposed to the Tokyo Olympics.”
Miyazaki works for the Tokyo city government, a key partner in organising the 2020 Games, but he is vocal about his opposition to the event.
“The coronavirus situation is pushing them to postpone the Games, but I think Japanese people should think twice about whether it is really necessary to host the Olympics,” he told AFP.
The prospect of hosting the Olympics remains largely popular in Japan, with 4.5 million tickets already sold through an oversubscribed lottery system that was so popular it was expanded for an additional round.
In domestic surveys, only around 10 percent of respondents think the Games should be cancelled, even with the global coronavirus pandemic stalking the globe.