olympics

Hosting 2020 Olympics would aid healing process - Tokyo bid chief

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If I was from Fukushima and directly affected by the disaster, I would be little a pi#^ed off by this. I might feel they were trying to exploit my loss for the personal gain of those with ties to the Japanese Olympic committee.

I can't imagine people in Fukushima who lost everything and facing difficulties everyday thinking "You know life is really bad for me now but it will be so much better if the Olympics would come to Tokyo 8 years in the future."

26 ( +27 / -1 )

Well said, Silvafan. This whole "It'll help heal/soothe us" nonsense is just that. Nonsense.

Not only is this a shameful use of Tohoku's pain and loss for Tokyo's hubris but also something many of the people in Tokyo themselves don't really want.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

The JGov sense of victimhood is in overdrive now. If the tsunami hadn't happened, they'd say the Olympics would help heal the people of Hiroshima.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Hosting 2020 Olympics would aid healing process

by then it would be forgotten completely...!

7 ( +8 / -1 )

I guess Takeda thinks the sympathy card is the best way to play the Olympic bid. Seems a bit desperate to me. But could it work?

6 ( +7 / -1 )

We are highly motivated to leverage the power of sport, with the firm commitment of the Tokyo and national governments, to help heal, unite and inspire Japan at a time of national rebuilding

This is right

Daijoboots -- no, it is not "right". By 2020 the "rebuilding" should, hopefully, be well along, and will certainly not be, evident in any way in Tokyo. And, hiring a bunch of rich, well-connected construction firms to build some new stadiums and other facilities is not going to "help heal, unite, and inspire Japan" in any way, by any stretch of the imagination. And that opinion comes from someone, who, as you suggest, has decided to take some "extended time" -- like permanently -- out of Japan. Mainly because this kind of "thinking" was making me nuts.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

"Takeda, a former Olympic show jumper, said that he and his team were desperate to bring the Games back to Tokyo and help in the recovery of the country’s morale following the catastrophic tsunami."

If you truly want to help the recovery of the country, use the money that the Olympics would cost -- or at the very least the bid money -- to help people STILL living in shelters because they have no means to take care of themselves. I'm sure that would go a LOT better and do a lot more towards healing.

I, too, would be pretty upset if I were a resident of Tohoku, hearing Tokyo use me in a desperate bid to get them games that would assure lucrative contracts and money for those with personal investment. In the last bid they tried a similar approach, suggesting that because Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only places to have suffered a nuclear attack and so they should get the Olympics (until Ishihara pushed for Tokyo).

If Tokyo wants the games, they need to show why they deserve them, not claim they deserve them because of victimization.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

not again...when will this loser ishihara realise this is a waste of tax payer oney..oh sorry this means more money given to his amakudari friends

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I really don't think it's appropriate to somehow attempt to connect the olympics to relief for a disaster that happened nearly a decade prior.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Give it up already.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

technically it is seen as an outstanding bid

Clearly, the writer has never had to endure the Tokyo subway at rush hour, or a 60-km traffic jam along the expressways at Golden Week.

Just what Tokyo needs: more construction and congestion. Isn't the plan to fill in Yoyogi Park with concrete and buildings?

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Sounds like emotional blackmail to me. If you really care about Japan, you`ll give us the Olympics ...

Personally Id like Turkey to get as that part of the world doesnt seem to have held the Olympics much - not that I`m very knowledgeable about the games though.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

waste of money for this pity party

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The International Olympic Committee could give a huge boost to the healing process in Japan after the trauma of last year’s tsunami—if they award Tokyo the 2020 Games, bid leader Tsunekazu Takeda said on Saturday.

for shame!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

So Japan, and more specifically Tokyo, a place that is completely filled with people 24/7, where many hotels dont even want foreigners because of the struggles of the language and the customs and citizens that are stressed enough with their lives are supposed to receive the Olympics with joy and pride...yeah right.

First of all, holding the Olympics requires also a lot of investment and preparation just to be chosen by the Olympic committee. Madrid for example has spent millions on sport facilities and hasnt been chosen and Greece is in deep trouble in partially because of all the excesses and expenses of the Athens Olympics, and I think that politicians arent fully aware of that.

Second, Tokyo is dangerously near the damaged reactor to the point that even the water supply in some district was affected, and you expect the corporations and tourists to come to such city with that kind of risk?

Third, remember how convincing were the diplomats from Tokyo when they lost to Madrid and London a few years ago. Their best argument was: "We will bring them the karaoke!"

I dont know about you, but I think that this project doesnt have much viability.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I live about 2km from the planned main Olympic site. I can see the vast tracts of land planned for the village, stadiums and various other events from my balcony. It really would be right on our doorstep.

This morning I spoke to a few people around here about this news item (it is always a hot topic around here). The ordinary Japanese around here that I have spoken to also dont want it, and are also angry that words are being put in their mouths by these bureaucrats. They are also quite embarrassed that they are using the disaster to gain the sympathy vote, just as people posting here have pointed out.

For me personally, I am quite looking forward to sitting back and watching the horror unfold as thousands upon thousands of foreigners descend on the area! They think they have problems just with me, my Canadian best friend and a few Russians walking around now! But in the longer term I see huge, expensive to maintain and unable to be used to their capacity buildings just sitting around. If they do come up with a use for them, I then see traffic backed up everywhere - the road systems here are just not designed to take that kind of traffic flow.

At the end of the day, this has nothing to do with the country, the people, the pride, the nation, and everything to do with Ishiharas personal ego trip and the lining of a few greasy bureaucrats pockets with lucrative construction contracts. And that pisses me off more than anything.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Selfish thinking. We do not want it.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

They'd do better if the pledged to hold the first Olympic Games powered solely by hot air.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It is time to introduce referendums in Japan...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Tokyo learning from Beijing - about how to spend millions on an event nobody wants, tarting up the capital & bringing in crowds it can't manage, while ignoring the genuine needs of the people in the provinces...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

That strikes me as a shameful exploitation of an extremely unfortunate and tragic natural disaster for rather selfish means. It's very distasteful.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Help with the healing process? Don't make me laugh! 2020 is 9 years after 3/11. The taxpayers money that will be spent on improving/building sports facilities and accommodation could be better spent on rebuilding the cities, towns and villages in Tohoku. Yes money will be brought in from the tourism of people coming to the games. But how will a night in a Izakaya in Tokyo help your homeless farmer (just as an example) whos lost everything due to the tsunami.

Takeda should be ashamed of himself for trying to use this disaster as a way to gain points with the Olympic committee. If you really want to help. How does the thought of Fukushima 2020 sound? Or is hosting the Olympics next to a stricken nuclear reactor not glitzy enough?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Tokyo is seen as the early favorite, not only because technically it is seen as an outstanding bid, but also because it is the choice of the sentimental voter.

The Olympics will be held seven years after the host city is decided next year. The sentimental mumbo-jumbo shouldn't have anything to do with swaying voters to Tokyo. But it probably will.

If not, a Nagano corrupt bid manual or two must have escaped the fires and could provide guidance. Or if they need more examples of how to do things the under-the-table way, they could talk to the keirin people and see how they got their sport into the Olympics.

Spending tons of money to build some new infrastructure and facilities around the Tokyo metro area has little to do with helping the people of the Tohoku region who will require years, if not decades in the case of some in Fukushima, to get their lives back to normal.

If I could, I would suggest an open forum that features facts from all of the money lost and continuing headaches related to maintenance of Olympic facilities at the host cities of the past few Summer Olympic Games. But this would make sense, in kind of a "dry" way, too logical for the "wet" thinking of the Japanese calling the shots on thie bid.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

How would they power the Olympics.....Turn all of the reactors back on:(......I am sure the money they have alrerady spent could have re-built a school, homes and lives. Japan really does need to wake up!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

If Ishihara hadn't been re-elected governor of Tokyo in 2011, this wouldn't even be on the table. How is a single prefectural politician able to drive this whole process? I hope the IOC understands that Ishihara really, truly does not deserve to get what he wants here. Let Istanbul host the 2020 games. The Middle East deserves a shot, and Turkey is quite deserving as the only (albeit flawed) Muslim-majority democracy in the region.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The Olympics would aid the healing process, bring much-needed money into the region, and show the world how people can overcome tragedy.

The proposal is to bring the Games to Sendai, isn't it?

Oh, wait...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Is this the best they have when it comes to trying to get the games? Pathetic.

Silva, well said. Patronizing and pathetic. I for one hope Tokyo doesn't get the games. No place with a racist mayor running the show should be awarded the games.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

< daydream > Would be worth something if the Jgov and JTobacco had to finally give it up and go non-smoking indoors everywhere, as it should be in a cilivized country. The sooner the better. Olympics could be the push that makes this happen. < /end daydream >

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It will also expose the world's finest athletes to air, water, and food contaminated with radioactive substances in excess of any level the vast majority have ever experienced or ever will experience because the government doesn't give a whit about protecting its residents. Any and all new facilities will be built with radioactive concrete. I'd think more than twice about this if I were the IOC.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

They are pulling the sympathy card again? 'Japathetiquette' at its finest!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

While I am FOR another round of Olympic games in Japan I think this is offensive BS. As said above, people who have lost all, seen homes and people they care about literally float away, should feel good about this?! That being said, I am sure many suckers will fall for this and believe the suits in Tokyo know best.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Nicky...as always, absolutely spot on. I agree with all of the posters above who state that this barefaced emotional blackmail is an embarrassment to the nation.

This Olympic bid has absolutely nothing to do with the disaster. Shame on the corrupt old men who use a national tragedy to fund their own ambition.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

Jannetto, Tamarama, KariHaruka - hear hear. This is barefaced emotional blackmail. No victim of our disasters will benefit from this boondoggle.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

I want to come. Please get the bid. Colleen Lemkuil Spirit Lake, Iowa.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Some pretty nasty comments here which say more about the posters and their self-made struggles than anything else. I've found that a vacation or extended time out of Japan can help.

We are highly motivated to leverage the power of sport, with the firm commitment of the Tokyo and national governments, to help heal, unite and inspire Japan at a time of national rebuilding.

This is right.

-13 ( +2 / -15 )

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