Abe says Tokyo deserves 2020 Games

But it is also about the revitalization

The only country to have a 20-year-long recession and the world's most geriatric population wants to teach the world about "revitalization"? Gimme a break.

Japan always looking for a "Sympathy Vote" (?)

The Tokyo bid committee has plans to carry the Olympic torch through the disaster zone and stage preliminary Olympic football matches there

The IOC members should have left the meeting at this point.

Is this guy for real? If he wants to see the true meaning of revitalization, he should take a tour of the hurricane Sandy area. Plus, with the high threat of Mt. Fuji blowing and another major earthquake waiting to happen and nuclear wasted dumped all about the country, I don't think they stand a chance. I can't see an athlete wanting to come to Japan. 2020 is far away. Japan, at this time, is too unstable and unpredictable in many ways.

Surely you don't think that hurricane Sandy and the 2011 earthquake are comparable events?

The IOC members should have left the meeting at this point.

Why?

We can all talk trash about revitalization but the other contenders are not exactly economic giants. Madrid and Istanbul? I think Tokyo has a good shot.

@Himajin

Isn't it obvious ? The Fukushima tradgedy is far from over. will any football team be willing to play in Tohoku ? Debris is still being burnt around the country, radioactive water still being pumped into the sea..... surely the IOC committee members can see through the glitz layed on by Abe in Tokyo (?)

take the games to Tohoku, then we'll see real development and re-vitalization. boosting the economy of the north will hopefully make people see the region as a viable place to live, work and invest.

the majority of the international community have already heard of the likes of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto... highlight somewhere new :)

By 2020 it will be 9 years since the earthquake and tsunami. In that time almost any relatively rich country would have recovered. There is no specially inspiring story here. But there will still be the nuclear debacle and debris always in the background, testament to Japanese hubris. That will be the real message that everyone will get no matter how much massage of public sentiment and dragging up the past that Japan's amateur PR team musters.

Madrid is in a bad row, and turkish... well there goes danger of a suicide attack vs the Occidental teams. I guess Japan wins this

go go Tokyo!!

“It is about the disasters we endured, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear failure. But it is also about the revitalization,” he said.

“It is about the disasters they endured, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear failure, hundreds of miles away from where we plan to hold the games. But it is also about the revitalization, which we have put on hold to funnel cash into this stupid Tokyo Olympics idea”

Here you go, I fixed it for you.

Abe says Tokyo deserves 2020 Games

I have a problem with people who think like this. You deserve NOTHING. The people in Tohoku are still homeless after 2 years. Shame.

I wonder if, since they're harping on about earthquakes, are they going to take the IOC to talk to the people who said that Tokyo has a 70% chance of getting hit by a big one in the next 7 years or whatever?

A few football matches ( most countries have no interest in Olympic football ) in Tohoku will really do a lot revitalize that region.

And of course, at the rate things are going, there is even the chance that they may not have recovered. Now that would be a story for the world's media. Though I am sure plans will be in place to build Potemkin villages and gently move out those living in the specially-erected, temporary shacks just for the duration of the games.

nobody "deserves" the Olympics unless they want years of endless debt ....

This Abe PM is getting pretty annoying! If I am an IOC member, I will deduct a point from Japan for consideration solely because he is trying to win the bidding by introducing irrelevant symphathy factors into their deliberations. The IOC members are not politicians and they don't want to be mind twisted with political talk. What about Turkey? Can Turkey use the argument she have a history of independence movement by the Kurds and she had being able to handle it pretty well with no terrorism in Istanbul? Now that will be a big plus for Turkey! A vibrant Istanbul can equal or surpass Tokyo's preparedness to host the Game.

Just because Japan have many Olympians have zero relevance in the deliberations. In fact by giving the Games to Istanbul, Turkey will be compelled to improve her sports so Turkey will have much more medals than before, so good for the IOC movment, more records to be broken!

In a close call between Istanbul and Tokyo I believe, ( Madrid, goodbye, Spain is broke), one more Abe talk and the IOC should just vote for Istanbul. A first for a Muslim nation ever, (just like a first for S America by giving Brazil to host 2016) will be a very compelling reason to help the IOC fulfill sportsmanship and world peace mission.

@nostromo: Exactly. Debt for a country in a 20 year plus recession. A careless government hellbent on party popularity simply wants to gloss over the true crisis in Tohoku.

Japan has to wake up and take a long hard look in the mirror! The sympathy the PM wants has long gone. You can not have one minister say "Oh, poor Japan has gone through so much!!!" right after another minister said "Japan will never stop killing whales".

It is about the disasters we endured, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear failure.

How surprising. Abe calling on the sympathy vote. Give us the Olympics or you don't care about the victims of the tragedy. Victims, by the way, half of whose reconstruction budget we are admitting to have misspent.

Either conduct yourself in a way people will admire, or in a way which inspires contempt. You can't play both games.

It is in 9 years time, for goodness' sake. what on earth has 2011 got to do with an Olympic games decision? On that basis why not give it to any place that has ahd a huge natural disaster in the last years? Bangladesh? Turkey? Indonesia? Saw the advert for this on the TV. Very stereotypical.

my god, how much longer can japan play the sympathy card. anything else they deserve to host because of 3.11? maybe the next world cup or winter olympics? heck, while you're at it, japan deserves to host the next tour de france.

You guys are some of the meanest people. Japan has come through the ashes of the horrible earthquake and tsunami of 2011 and all you do is bash Abe over and over again. Some of you seem to hate Japan which is very depressing due to the fact that Japan is the best country in the world. Japan deserves to host the 2020 Olympic Games. This will bring much needed attention to Japan and not to mention the billions of dollars Japan's Economy so drastically needs. Please do not keep bashing on Japan! Please pray for Japan!!

For sure this bid will be between Istanbul and Tokyo. It is obvious that with current economical situation Madid is far from hosting the Olympics. Tokyo may have one of the best transportation systems in the world and no need to do anything for Olympics for transportation but is it enough to get the Olympics. As it is known for many years Japanese people doesn't care much about hosting the Olympics. I think this is part of the Japanese culture and like many other things they don't give much attention what is going on in outer world. Also It may be many years ago but Tokyo hosted Olympics two times in the past and Istanbul never. In my opinion these give advantages to Istanbul. Terrorism in Turkey has nothing to do with the foreigners. Conflicts between the Kurdish and Turkish has a long history and will not be solved easily. But this will not impact the Olypmics because this Olympics will have lots of benefits mostly in economical ways to both Turkish and Kurdish people living in Turkey . Turkish people are so eager to get this Olypmics. For long years Turkish are fighting to host World Cup and European Cup in football and also trying to get Olympics on the side. Government is making a lots of investments and people are crazy to host an important event so that they can show their hospitality. Turkish people think that the world has a bad image in their minds about Turkey. like unsecure, religious and not developed etc.... Turkish are dying to show that these are not true and this will make Turkish to fight more to get the 2020 olypics.

In conclusion, I don't agree with Abe, Maybe Tokyo is almost ready for Olympics but definitely Istanbul deserves the Olympics more than Tokyo!!!

The way you can show Japan has recovered from a tsunami/earthquake in 2011 is not to wait 9 years but to actually do something now

Yueeuch. Don't fall for it.

For me logically thinking the past and near future Olympics have gone Beijing -> London -> Brazil -> Logically Japan (maybe Russia?) next.

Japan has hosted and will host plenty of big sports events. It has co-hosted the World Cup, has hosted the Winter Olympics several times, The World Baseball Classic, had the Olympics in 1964, was declared the Olympic City in 1940 as well, will host the Rugby World Cup in 2019 etc. etc. Turkey has never had anything.

Why does Tokyo really "deserve" the Olympics over Istanbul? The disasters have nothing to do with anything. It should be about the quality of the bid. The typical Japanese attempt at a sympathy vote should work against them.

Abe wants to showcase how Japan has "recovered" from the disasters? That's rich. If ever, he will only be showcasing how poorly managed the recovery effort has been, and how severely the recovery funds have been misappropriated.

How surprising. Abe calling on the sympathy vote. Give us the Olympics or you don't care about the victims of the tragedy. Victims, by the way, half of whose reconstruction budget we are admitting to have misspent.

Either conduct yourself in a way people will admire, or in a way which inspires contempt. You can't play both games.

Barry -- absolutely spot on. Japan Inc., led by Abe, is shameleesly using the deaths and continued suffering of thousands of people to try to guilt the IOC into giving them the Olympics, when they could not win it on their own merits a few years back. This is a disgusting display and Japan should be ashamed of their "leaders" for spending tax money to support it.

“It is about the disasters they endured, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear failure, hundreds of miles away from where we plan to hold the games. But it is also about the revitalization, which we have put on hold to funnel cash into this stupid Tokyo Olympics idea”

Perfectly put Probie. But I think you left one out.

But it is also about the revitalization, which we have put on hold to funnel cash into this stupid Tokyo Olympics idea and our economically unviable but cultural tradition of whale "research" which either ends up on the palates of our ojiichans and obaachans, in dog food or thrown away”

Japan has got to be the favourite in all this, surely. Give it to Madrid and the pickpockets will think christmas has come early. Give it to Turkey and you've really got to worry about security. I dont like Abes sales pitch but I dont see any reason why Japan shouldnt get it. If folks are honest you know it will be an incredible show!

Tokyo deserves to host the 2020 Summer Olympics so that it can show the world how Japan has recovered since 2011’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters

Yeah, right mate! Hopefully, by 2020 you should have the people out of shelters and started rebuilding the north-east coast. Then, you can do bus tours of the exclusion zone around Dai-ichi. The only thing Japan deserves is a kick in the backside for procrastinating over the rebuilding of the north-east coast. It's two years next week and they have virtually done bugger all to rebuild the infrastructure in the north-east.

Ask the people still without homes in Tohoku if they think Japan "deserves" these games.

I can't understand why a nation would feel proud at 'deserving' something instead of earning it. It's always about being entitled, not about being able or worthwhile. Now, how exactly is Tokyo 'deserving' of the Olympics because of natural disasters and the very human, very poor actions of an electric company?

Is it the Fukushima lagging?

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/fukushima-lags-in-recovery-from-disaster

Is it the slow pace of reconstruction?

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/pace-of-reconstruction-slow-2-years-after-tsunami

The continued failure to ACTUALLY bring the Fukushima plant under control or the decades it'll take to clean it?

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japans-long-war-to-shut-down-fukushima-nuclear-plant

Someone point out to how everything Abe says isn't a contradiction of reality. Yesterday the guy says Tokyo is indeed under threat of a major earthquake in the near future, but its buildings are strong and suffered little damage in 2011 (and yet he needs to show the amazing recovery!). And when you're done explaining that away tell me the restaurants in Tohoku that Abe wined and dined the IOC heads at well boasting of recovery and inspiration.

Still, Nikkei index is over 12,000 points.

smithinjapan - that's a magnificent summary of the rank hypocrisy, delusional self-regard, and disconnect from reality which infests this bid.

Give us the games because people a long way from Tokyo had a bad time nine years before they are due to start, and then fat cats in Tokyo profiteered from the disaster whenever we could, doing nothing to help those whose lives were shattered. But never mind - here's a girl dressed up as a geisha! Now sign on the dotted line so we can really start scamming.

Weak, play the sympathy card.... screw who is better... pity us and give us the games.

Why?

kiyoshiMukaiMar. 07, 2013 - 12:18PM JST

Still, Nikkei index is over 12,000 points.

Bubble.

I think Tokyo should show it 'deserves' the games in other ways: Deeper more meaningful and constructive discussion over territorial disputes with her neighbors; genuine recalcitrance over wartime atrocities; more outward looking and foreigner-friendly domestic policies as befitting an Olympic nation and a little intellectual honesty over the corrupt scourge that is the whaling industry.

I'm not saying these should be preconditions for getting the games - far worse candidates have hosted - but if Japan wants to talk of 'deserving' the games, let's talk about 'earning' it. Otherwise Japan is just another candidate and win or lose, doesn't 'deserve' it more than anyone else.

Why is Japan so desperate in winning the Tokyo Olympic Games?

Norway, Sweden, Denmark, US, Germany,Swiss, Holland, Canada, Australia, South Africa are all careless about it. We can sit back and watch the Japanese circus on this. Good luck.

So how does one go about getting a job on the IOC? Looks pretty cush to me!

Doesn't deserve them at all!

a projected motorway will run by a waterfront site for the athletes' village

Lovely.

budgie: Very good point. Japan's not doing a very good job playing world-ambassador by rescinding apologies and the bombast over island disputes, either.

It's definitely between Istanbul and Tokyo, as Spain has had the Olympics and Madrid can't come up with the financing. Japan's only advantage is that most of the infrastructure will be built already and is quite high-tech. Istanbul, on the other hand, would host it for the first time, and in that region as well.

It would be Great to see. But can Japan realy afford to Setup and run the Olimpics.

Abe says Tokyo deserves 2020 Games

But Japan doesn't deserve Abe.

What a thread. Hosting Olympic Games is an economic burden. There is no doubt about it. Japan is so generous as to host the Olympic Games to shoulder that economic burden for the rest of the world in appreciation for the help it received after the earthquake.

I am against Japan hosting Olympic Games because there are so many people out there who want to make Japan thank them for the privilege of losing a lot of money for the sport event. Money should be sepnt wisely.

CH3CHO: "Japan is so generous as to host the Olympic Games to shoulder that economic burden for the rest of the world in appreciation for the help it received after the earthquake."

Now there's a crock! The people against this bid are as such for two reasons: 1) That Abe and Co are claiming they 'deserve' the Olympics because of a disaster that will see ZERO benefit for the people still suffering from it, and B) the people are still suffering from it and the money would be better used for reconstruction and not the lip-service given by said politicians.

But feel free to tell us Mr. and Ms. Tanaka still in shelters after two years are benefitting from Abe's wining and dining of the IOC's hosts. I'd ask you to ask Mr. Watanabe how he feels about the Olympics and Abe using his grief for posturing, but after his wife killed herself after still being a shelter more than a year after the fact, my guess is you wouldn't get a positive result.

If Japan wants to host the Olympics based on ability, know-how, spirit, and what not that's fine, though it is indeed an economic burden, but saying they 'deserve' it because of natural disasters and company and government ineptitude with Fukushima is absolutely insulting and ridiculous, especially to those STILL suffering while Abe claims it will prove their ability to bounce back. Is ANY of this going to go towards Tohoku? NO. Japan is generous in saying thank you to the rest of the world in appreciation of the world's help, and in making an honest effort to help those still in need.

I mean, come on... before the disasters of 2011 the government was saying Japan deserved the Olympics because they are the only nation that suffered atomic bombings! That's not 'generosity'.

Tokyo deserves the Olympics like Japan deserves Abe. I wouldn't wish either on each other but we're stuck with one, so let's give the other a different chance in let's say Turkey?

smithinjapan

The people against this bid are as such for two reasons: 1) That Abe and Co are claiming they 'deserve' the Olympics because of a disaster that will see ZERO benefit for the people still suffering from it, and B) the people are still suffering from it and the money would be better used for reconstruction and not the lip-service given by said politicians.

Why do not you read the whole article?

“The compassion, courage and calmness of those (disaster) victims pushed me to stand again,” he said. “My hope was that by doing so I could tell the nation that anyone deserves a second chance. That’s the powerful message that Tokyo 2020 can send to the whole world.” Abe also said Tokyo deserves the Games as the capital of a sports-loving nation which boasts many world-record holders.

That is what he really said. You are just misguided by the sloppy lead sentence and accusing Abe for what he did not say.

CH3CHO: "You are just misguided by the sloppy lead sentence and accusing Abe for what he did not say."

Not at all. In fact, I intentionally left the part about him 'standing up again' after failing the first time as PM because that is yet another example of how he's using their grief, to an international audience, to curry favor when he's done next to nothing to help the people in question.

I still want you to give me proof of Abe showing the IOC heads the affected areas and how they've 'recovered' and as such how deserving a place hundreds of km away is. How much of the projected goals of restructuring has Japan reached, truly? How many people are still in shelters and want the Olympics in Tokyo?

You can't answer these questions because it would mean a bit of soul-searching over the truth. As I said, until the 2011 disasters the reason Japan 'deserved the Olympics' was because it was the only nation to suffer atomic bombings. Then when that bid lost Ishihara launched into a tirade of how other nations bribed their way to winning and he showed exactly why Tokyo does NOT deserve to win. But since you bring it up:

“The compassion, courage and calmness of those (disaster) victims pushed me to stand again,”

Yeah, and how many times did he say this before the IOC came to visit? Until then it was solely about the economy and deflating the yen to return Japan to its former glory. Now he's suddenly stepping off the crapper for the victims of Tohoku (many of whom are still in major trouble despite the pork-barrel projects ear-marked for them going elsewhere).

smithinjapan

As I said, until the 2011 disasters the reason Japan 'deserved the Olympics' was because it was the only nation to suffer atomic bombings.

Who said so? I have never heard of it. Prove it. I think you are going too far from acceptable jokes.

when he's done next to nothing to help the people in question.

Cannot you watch TV or read newspaper?

I really hate it when people like you spread malignant misinformation like "they are doing next to nothing". Someone has to clean up the hateful message, which is just waste of everyone's time and energy. Cannot you just be fair?

How many people are still in shelters

Are you talking about "kasetsujutaku"? Those "kasetsujutaku" shelters are much better house to live than ordinary Korean or Chinese houses. The refugees are free to stay in "kasetujutaku" until they save enough money to buy or build their own house. Japan is in no hurry to kick the refugees out of "kasutsujutaku" shelters.

I still want you to give me proof of Abe showing the IOC heads the affected areas and how they've 'recovered' and as such how deserving a place hundreds of km away is.

You should read the article first.

Japan has recovered since 2011’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said

Obviously it is NOT that fact when the Fukushima nuclear reactors were still leaking!

"...you don't get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate." quoted from Chester L. Karrass

I reckon Tokyo having the Olympics is a decent idea, it'll probably be one of the last chances it gets regardless. Istanbul I would say is the strong contender, as recently there has been a trend to give the host city and nation (for the World Cup) to newly developed or mid-developing nations and Turkey fits the bill perfectly for this, It would probably also coincide with their joining the Euro Zone as well.

Anyway I'm talking from a very subjective point of view; I would prefer to watch the games live in Tokyo rather than on TV in Euro hours.

Tokyo hosted Olympic in 1964. Instead of hosting again, it should allow Istanbul or Madrid to host once. Tokyo is polluted and heavy in traffic. In the eyes of visitors, pushing office workers into the train is chaotic.

It is about the disasters we endured, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear failure. But it is also about the revitalization,

Tokyo was not epicenter of disasters. Cities of Fukushima and Sendai suffered most. He should concentrate on rebuilding those cities and helping the victims.

Olympic will not make commercial return for Japan. It is just a boosting the national pride for hosting game.

Having the olympics while receiving donations for the tsunami from other countries. Is Abe just pampered beyond belief or is he insane?

No sensitivity for the current victims. Shameless poster boy who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

It would be nice for Tokyo to once again have the 2020 Summer Olympics. But there are some ups & downs about it. Here is a list of some of them. The games would bring great profits from tourist from around the world to help reconstruct the living areas of the 2011 tsunami. However, with the constant earthquakes & territorial disputes with China,Taiwan & Russia, Korea (like the controversial moment during men's soccer match in 2012) it could bring potentially dangers. In the end, the final decision is up to the International Olympic Committee.