Skip to main content

Tokyo's Olympic Bid in the Overseas Media

With two days to go until the selection of the host city for the 2016 Olympics here is a list of some interesting recent articles looking at Tokyo's bid from various overseas perspectives.

We Do Show Emotion, Says Tokyo Olympic Bid Chief - AFP: Olympic bid chair Ichiro Kono indirectly suggests cultural insensitivity by the IOC in its criticisms of Japan's bid committee as 'lacking emotional punch.'

Tokyo Hope [sic] Its Emphasis on a Green Games Will Help Deliver 2016 Olympics - Telegraph.co.uk: An essentially positive assessment of Tokyo's bid from an environmental perspective, but one which contends that the lack of a major celebrity pushing the bid will hurt Tokyo's chances.

Tokyo Olympic Bid and Hatoyama Risks Loosing [sic] His Credibility - The Seoul Times: A fascinating propaganda piece which uses Tokyo's Olympic bid to attack the xenophobia, racism and development policies of Tokyo mayor and principal Olympic (and Tokyo Marathon) backer Shintaro Ishihara, suggesting fledgling prime minister Yukio Hatoyama will become widely hated throughout Asia for giving his support to Ishihara by appearing in Copenhagen to push Tokyo's bid.

Tokyo Pushing Green Games in Olympics Bid - The Peninsula: A relatively balanced article from Qatar looking favorably at the environmental aspects of Tokyo's bid while at the same questioning their feasibility and relevance.

Tokyo's Chances Fade for 2016 Olympics - BusinessWeek: Polls from last February reportedly indicate only a 55% support level among Japanese citizens in contrast to more up-to-date data.

Tokyo 2016 Guarantees 'Unprecedented Legacy Promise for Humankind' - Sports Features Communications: A press release which says the support levels in Tokyo and Japan as a whole are 'unprecedented,' giving numbers far higher than the BusinessWeek piece.

Comments

Brett Larner said…
You don't like Gundam?

Most-Read This Week

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...