According to many polls, the majority of the Japanese public say they want the Tokyo Olympics to be canceled or postponed again. So why haven't opponents of the Games taken to the streets in large numbers to protest? Is it a cultural thing?

It has been ordained by the higher-ups that the show must go on.

Thus - the pavlovian reaction instilled in every hoeful child here from Day One at elementary school. Thise above have spoken.

So must it be.

Shoganai.

For the same reason people want the Olympics to be canceled - the pandemic.

Mass protest, JAPAN? No money to be made. And besides, you know the Looters Don't aPprove.

Leading me on with this clickbait headline though. . Trolls make better clickbait.

There was a petition to cancel the Olympics, 352,000 signatures from 118 countries or 180 or whatever don't recall exactly.

That was probably a way more accurate representation of those against the Olympics than the polls mentioned

What does courage have to do with going out on the streets to protest? Non-sense.

Those wanting it postponed wish enjoying it in ordinary cheerful circumstances but they know it by now is impossible

majority don't care much either way

Been here 20 years. The Japanese have thousands of reasons for not protesting. That's it.

Lack of courage, the same reason why most don’t give up their seat on the train for people with disabilities, pregnant women etc... or they don’t want Mrs Tanaka next door finding out and spreading it around the neighborhood.

But if there’s a protest against US forces in Okinawa, then they turn out.

Because polls are fake.

why haven't opponents of the Games taken to the streets in large numbers to protest? Is it a cultural thing?

I suppose it's a cultural thing, not in that the Japanese are adverse to protest as such (witness the rumpus over the opening of Narita Airport, or the student riots of the late sixties) but in that the objection is to the Games being held in the middle of a pandemic and the whole point is that folk don't want folk to gather together in large numbers, whether it's to run and jump and show off how good they are, or to protest said folk gathering from all over the world to run and jump and show off in Tokyo.

Gathering in large numbers to protest people gathering in large numbers would be pretty stupid.

Jumping up and down in large numbers and screaming slogans never did much good nohow.

I'm hoping people protest good and proper in the next elections.

In my time in Japan, I've always felt the Japanese society was very serene, but a deeper insight would leave an impression that people just tend to follow the herd rather than taking a stand, to the point of it being inconvenient to them. Let's see though, how far can the Japanese remain timid and quiet for long.

So why haven't opponents of the Games taken to the streets in large numbers to protest?

Cuz people gotta work. We got a lot of unpaid overtime to take care of. Work before family. Money before health. How else are we gonna pay our taxes and bills? Embezzle funds and take bribes? What are we? Government officials?

Is it a cultural thing?

Nah, it's an ignorance thing.

SOE.

1) No one here is giving any weight to the protests. At most, the officials in charge issue a statement saying "we have heard the protesters and we take note" and that's the end of it. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe I just can't remember, but the last protests that affected society (not to say those protests were good, quite the opposite) were the Todai protests in 1968-1969.

2) There is one saying in Japan - 出る釘は打たれる - "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down".

Participating in a protest here is almost tantamount to personal embarrassment. For example, explaining at work why I took part in a protest, etc. Just take the case of someone getting drunk and, for example, throwing up on a subway platform. Often they phone work and the person then has to explain and is inconvenienced.

Because most Japanese lack courage, they lost their bravery years ago.