Tokyo Olympics Open With Controversy

Tokyo's 2020 Olympics opened this week; yes that's right 2020 - because COVID.  And man, has it been rocky for Japan during this time. Not only is Tokyo facing a six-month high in COVID-19 cases, but their Olympic Committee has seen a ton of controversy. Let's review, shall we? Back in 2013, when Tokyo won the bid for the games, there were allegations from the French that bribery was involved in the International Olympic Committee's decision. The resulting fallout forced the resignation of Tsunekasu Takeda, the head of the Committee at that time.

The games' creative director Hiroshi Sasaki resigned after making a demeaning comment about a well known Japanese female celebrity. (Last year he suggested to planning staff members in online "brainstorming exchanges" that well-known entertainer Naomi Watanabe could perform in the ceremony as an "Olympig.") Watanabe is a heavy-set young woman, a fashion icon, and very famous in Japan. Sasaki's "Olympig" reference was an obvious play on the word "Olympic."  "For Ms. Naomi Watanabe, my idea and comments are a big insult. And it is unforgivable," Sasaki said. "I offer my deepest regrets and apologize from the depth of my heart to her, and those who may have been offended by this."

Keigo Oyamada, a Japanese composer whose music is part of the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, has apologized for bullying a classmate during his childhood. The reports of his abusing a child with disabilities, which surfaced online recently and got covered in Japanese media, are sparking a backlash on social media, demanding his resignation. Oyamada, a well-known rock musician, had boasted about the abuse in detail in Japanese magazine interviews he gave in the 1990s. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart, of course to the classmate himself whom I have hurt, and all my fans, friends and other people involved," Oyamada, also known as Cornelius, said in a July 16 statement on his site. His segment of the music will not be used in the ceremony.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori resigned as the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee in February after sexist comments made in which he said women "talk too much." Gender inequality in Japan is exactly the issue that was raised by Mori's demeaning comments, and what drove his ouster. Women are largely absent in the boardroom and in top politics in Japan, and they acknowledged that the organizing committee has too few women in leadership roles, and no women at the vice president level. 

The Tokyo Olympics are welcoming 11,000 athletes with no public attendance in the midst of a populace overwhelmingly against the games. The pandemic is one reason, and the soaring costs are the other. The official cost of the postponed Tokyo Olympics has increased by 22%, the local organizing committee said in unveiling its new budget on Tuesday. In an online news conference, organizers said the Olympics will cost $15.4 billion to stage. This is up from $12.6 billion in last year's budget. The added $2.8 billion is the cost of the one-year delay. Expenses come from renegotiating contracts and measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Audits by the Japanese government over the last several years, however, show the costs are higher than officially stated and are at least $25 billion. Tokyo said the Olympics would cost about $7.5 billion when the IOC awarded the games in 2013. A University of Oxford study this year said Tokyo is the most expensive Summer Olympics on record. About 80% of people in Japan in recent polls say they want the Olympics canceled or postponed. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics run through August 8th.