On March 22, the IOC Executive Committee discussed whether the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games would be postponed. On the 23rd, the Canadian and Australian Olympic Committee stated that they would not team up to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. After withdrawing from many countries, more and more voices hope that the Tokyo Olympic Games will be postponed or cancelled. On the 24th, Bach, the chairman of the International Olympics Organizing Committee, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a conference call to reach a consensus on the one-year extension of the Tokyo Olympics. The International Olympic Committee subsequently convened an executive committee, which approved the agreement reached between Bach and Abe. Subsequently, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee issued a joint statement saying that in view of the current epidemic situation, the 32nd Olympic Games in Tokyo needs to be rescheduled to after 2020, but not later than the summer of 2021. The Olympic Tinder will remain in Japan, and the names of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will remain unchanged.
"Now we are facing another unprecedented challenge, organizing the hosting of a postponed Olympic Games. This is the first time in our long history of the Olympic Games, and it will be a difficult task. As we all know, the Olympic Games is a time of peace One of the most complicated activities, "wrote IOC President Bach in an open letter to all members.
On March 25, 2020, Tokyo, Japan, the Olympic countdown timer on the street no longer displays the countdown, and instead displays the date and time of the day
Throughout the history of the modern Olympic Games, this is the second time that Tokyo is facing a dilemma of not being able to host the Olympic Games. The Tokyo Olympic Games has always carried Japan's hope of showing national strength and national rejuvenation. Until the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the host cities of previous Olympic Games were European and American countries. Japan's bid to host the 1940 Tokyo Olympics is partly to break the Western monopoly in the field of sports and to establish a strong country image. On the other hand, it is to restore Japan's plummeting international image after the "September 18th" incident and to reintegrate into the world. Gesture. However, the outbreak of the war of aggression against China in 1937 greatly disrupted the preparations for the Tokyo Olympics and international resistance, and Japan announced in 1938 that it had abandoned its right to host.
After World War II, Japan once again stood up from the ruins and achieved economic take-off. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics was the first time that Japan returned to the international stage with the image of a post-war revival country. It was seen by Sha Qingqing, deputy director of the Shanghai Library Historical Documentation Research Center Come, this is a landmark event of the "Japan Rise" mentality change.
For the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, before Canada and Australia retired, the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government had stated that they would "not postpone or cancel." From the Japanese perspective, economic concerns are not too many. "Southern Weekly" cited data from "Time", pointing out that the preparations for the Japanese Olympics have cost about 25 billion U.S. dollars, four times the original budget. According to the calculation by Honorary Professor Katsuhiro Miyamoto of Kansai University in Japan, the one-year postponement of the Olympic Games means increasing the maintenance and management costs of Olympic venue-related facilities, plus necessary expenditures such as reselection of players, and the loss will reach 640 billion yen (about 41 billion). RMB). Japan ’s economy has shown negative growth in the fourth quarter of 2019. The Tokyo Olympics, which was expected to inject vitality into Japan ’s economy, were postponed again, making Japan ’s already weak economy even worse.
Local time March 24, 2020 Tokyo, Japan, athletes village built for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games
As a matter of fact, the Olympic Games, as a huge investment with great economic benefits, has already surpassed the host country's economic impact. The Olympic Games we are familiar with today is a derivative of the neo-liberal capitalist economic logic.
The successful hosting of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics marked the official transformation of the Olympic Games into a biennial commercial carnival and branding. At that time, the Reagan administration vigorously promoted neoliberalism, emphasized the value of a free market economy, and cut taxes and public expenditure. Under the circumstances that the Los Angeles City Council stipulated that the municipal expenditure for organizing the Olympic Games should not exceed $ 5 million, the preparations for the Los Angeles Olympic Games were completely commercialized, and corporate sponsorship was vigorously absorbed, eventually achieving a surplus of $ 21.5 million. The "Olympic Global Partner Project" The representative's Public-Private Partnership has since become a standard feature for major sports events.
Olympic researcher Jules Boykov called this economic model "festival capitalism", that is, packaging large sports events as a major festival, an exceptional state of daily life that attracts the attention and consumption of the entire people. In order to achieve global capital publicity and commercial profit.
The article also pointed out that the Olympic Games has become a goal for global cities to compete for its role in promoting local economy and urban development. However, the extent to which this beautiful goal can be achieved is still a question. An important theme of the current Tokyo Olympics is "reconstruction after disasters and urban renewal". The east wind of the Olympics will be used to publicize the results of the post-disaster reconstruction of the March 11 Japanese earthquake. For this reason, many Olympic events are planned to be held in Fukushima. However, some media reports pointed out that due to the large demand for the construction of the Tokyo Olympic venues and the Olympic Village, many reconstruction projects in the earthquake-stricken area were plunged into building materials and manpower shortages, further stalling the slow progress of reconstruction projects. "We cannot afford this Olympics, it will only benefit Tokyo," a Miyagi Prefecture resident said in an interview.
In 2017, the Fukushima prefecture's Azuma Stadium and the 2020 Olympic baseball and other events will be held here.
The postponement of the Olympic Games has undoubtedly disrupted all the plans of the Japanese government. However, at the moment when new crown pneumonia is raging, the most important issue is how to control the epidemic. As of now, the Japanese authorities' measures on epidemic prevention have been questioned at home and abroad. "Caixin Weekly" reported that as one of the first countries to find the first confirmed case outside China, the daily increase of newly confirmed cases in Japan has not been on the triple digits. This is because the government has set high thresholds for the detection of new crown virus, Encouraging "mild people to live at home and isolate themselves" is directly related. The large-scale concentrated infection of the "Princess Diamond" in February exposed the loopholes of the Japanese authorities' overall epidemic prevention measures. It is worth noting that, just as the Tokyo Olympics will be postponed for one year, the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, first mentioned the possibility of "closing the city" in Tokyo when necessary, and held an emergency press conference on the 25th to warn Tokyo of an "outbreak of infection Significant situation. " Without the constraints of the approaching Olympic Games, the Japanese authorities are visually investing in the epidemic prevention work with more caution.
In any case, we look forward to the end of the epidemic as soon as possible and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be held as scheduled in a year's time. After all, it has important significance for all of us, whether they are avid sports fans or not.
"The ornamental sports have undertaken the functions of major festivals in history, providing people in modern society with the opportunity to temporarily escape from the monotonous life and stimulate people's passion and vitality. It is also important that ornamental sports can play a role The role of enhancing social cohesion-the biennial World Cup and Olympic Games can attract the attention of global audiences, not only because these major events are rare, but also because the national team's outstanding performance in large international competitions often excites domestic audiences . "