2020 Summer Olympics

Concerns and controversies at the 2020 Summer Olympics

A number of concerns and controversies arose leading up to the 2020 Summer Olympics, which took place in Tokyo, Japan. The games were postponed until July 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IOC stated that their Japanese partners and the former prime minister Shinzo Abe "made it very clear" in 2020, "that Japan could not manage a postponement beyond next summer [2021] at the latest".[1] Just weeks before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, honorary patron Emperor Naruhito was said to be "extremely worried about the current status of coronavirus infections",[2] and was "concerned that while there [were] voices of anxiety among the public, the holding (of the events) may lead to the expansion of infections".[3]

NOlympics Guide to Tokyo 2020

TOKYO 2020: A Disaster a Decade in the Making The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are over. They have exposed to the entire world the depths to which the IOC will play with our lives in order to satisfy TV and sponsorship contracts, and the media has largely echoed the fact that much of the world has now sour

2026 Asian Games

The 2026 Asian Games , officially the XX Asian Games (第20回アジア競技大会) and also known as Aichi–Nagoya 2026 (愛知・名古屋2026), is an ongoing multi-sport event which are being held in Aichi Prefecture in Japan from 19 September to 4 October 2026, with several events starting from 10 September. Nagoya is the third Japanese city to host the Asian Games, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994. The event is set to return to its traditional four-year cycle, after the 2022 edition was postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Games marked the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Asian Games held in New Delhi, India.

Asian Games in Japan Leave Questions of Legacy – Adnkronos English

Nagoya, Oct. 5 (Jiji Press)–The first Summer Asian Games held in Japan in over three decades left behind questions of its legacy. The 16 days of sport mainly held in the central prefecture of Aichi through Sunday featured venues full of cheering crowds and scenes of excitement shared by a wide range of people, a sharp contrast to the spectatorless Tokyo Olympics in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Asian Games brought together over 15,000 members of delegations from 45 countries and regions. Japan rewrote its record high for both total medal tally and gold medal count for the quadrennial sporting tournament, sweeping up 269 medals, including 83 golds. Japan left behind valuable memories for people in the country. Spectators witnessed high-level performances by athletes, and were introduced to Asia’s vast array of cultures. People also had a chance to see athletes at public events to celebrate the medalists. The 2021 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo had 1,423.8 billion yen in costs. The budget for the Asian Games and the Asian Para Games totaled 298 billion yen, despite the number of sports and participating athletes being larger than those of the worldwide sporting festival. The latest Asian Games aimed to create a sustainable event that was simple yet smoothly operated. The organizing committee decided not to newly build an athletes’ village, while opting to host individual sporting events at existing venues in five Japanese prefectures, including Tokyo. The massive sporting event, however, was not without its hiccups, especially in terms of operations. The event was hosted without the involvement of a major advertising agency taking charge of daily operations, which was unusual for a major international tournament in Japan. Without the know-how of such a company, many staff members on the organizer’s side were inexperienced. “There were operational difficulties from the very start,” a senior official of the organizing committee said. An event planning company tasked with venue operations failed to submit venue diagrams in time, according to a person familiar with the matter. “There was a lack of information sharing,” the person said. The person said that preparations dragged on until just before the opening ceremony, due to expense calculations and venue-related planning being delayed. Issues also plagued the tournament after competitions kicked off. North Korea’s national anthem was played instead of South Korea’s anthem at a men’s hockey match against Bangladesh on Sept. 18, while a bus did not arrive to take the South Korean men’s basketball team to a practice session before the final against Japan on Sept. 20. The organizing committee spent a busy period apologizing and explaining these blunders. While the committee had touted strong ticket sales, many spectator seats were empty at some venues. The committee also learned valuable lessons from its delayed responses to inaccurate posts being spread on social media. The committee was quick to act on some issues. An official of the committee said that it had provided round-the-clock support to tackle reports of water leaks, clogged drain and other issues by people staying at container houses serving as accommodation for athletes. On transportation issues, the committee switched to a booking system that did not accept late bus reservations after a predetermined deadline. Junichi Kawai, commissioner of the Japan Sports Agency who has plenty of experience competing at international tournaments as a six-time Paralympian with 21 Paralympic medals in swimming under his belt, said, “We always have issues” at any big tournament. “We’ve resolved them.” The Japanese government plans to put together the country’s accumulated know-how on running a massive sporting tournament, and pass such lessons on to future generations. Japan’s basic law on sports, revised last year, stipulates that efforts securing the transparency of tournament operations and nurturing personnel are state-led measures. As part of the effort, the Asian Games organizing committee needs to leave behind reports and people with related knowledge and experience. In terms of revenues, the tournament’s sponsorship income reached 27 billion yen, exceeding the organizing committee’s goal. The legacy of the latest Asian Games is the method of cutting down on expenses through utilizing container hotels and cruise ships in place of a dedicated athletes’ village, as well as ways to deal with challenges involving the transportation of athletes. Such a legacy will be very important given that Japan may host another massive sporting tournament, including possibly another Olympic Games, in the future. A committee was launched in September to submit a bid to host the 2035 Rugby World Cup. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Effect of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games on COVID-19 incidence in Japan: a synthetic control approach

Background The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games (23 July–8 August 2021) were held in the middle of Japan’s fifth wave of COVID-19, when the number of cases was on the rise, and coincided with the fourth state of emergency implemented by the host city, Tokyo. Aim This study aimed to assess whether the hosting of the Games was associated with a change in the number of COVID-19 cases in Japan using a synthetic control method. Methods A weighted average of control countries with a variety of predictors was used to estimate the counterfactual trajectory of daily COVID-19 cases per 1 000 000 population in the absence of the Games in Japan. Outcome and predictor data were extracted using official and open sources spanning several countries. The predictors comprise the most recent country-level annual or daily data accessible during the Games, including the stringency of the government’s COVID-19 response, testing capacity and vaccination capacity; human mobility index; electoral democracy index and demographic, socioeconomic, health and weather information. After excluding countries with missing data, 42 countries were ultimately used as control countries. Results The number of observed cases per 1 000 000 population on the last day of the Games was 109.2 (7-day average), which was 115.7% higher than the counterfactual trajectory comprising 51.0 confirmed cases per 1 000 000 population. During the Olympic period (since 23 July), the observed cumulative number of cases was 61.0% higher than the counterfactual trajectory, comprising 143 072 and 89 210 confirmed cases (p=0.023), respectively. The counterfactual trajectory lagged 10 days behind the observed trends. Conclusions Given the increasing likelihood that new emerging infectious diseases will be reported in the future, we believe that the results of this study should serve as a sentinel warning for upcoming mega-events during COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Effect of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games on COVID-19 incidence in Japan: a synthetic control approach

Background The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games (23 July–8 August 2021) were held in the middle of Japan’s fifth wave of COVID-19, when the number of cases was on the rise, and coincided with the fourth state of emergency implemented by the host city, Tokyo. Aim This study aimed to assess whether the hosting of the Games was associated with a change in the number of COVID-19 cases in Japan using a synthetic control method. Methods A weighted average of control countries with a variety of predictors was used to estimate the counterfactual trajectory of daily COVID-19 cases per 1 000 000 population in the absence of the Games in Japan. Outcome and predictor data were extracted using official and open sources spanning several countries. The predictors comprise the most recent country-level annual or daily data accessible during the Games, including the stringency of the government’s COVID-19 response, testing capacity and vaccination capacity; human mobility index; electoral democracy index and demographic, socioeconomic, health and weather information. After excluding countries with missing data, 42 countries were ultimately used as control countries. Results The number of observed cases per 1 000 000 population on the last day of the Games was 109.2 (7-day average), which was 115.7% higher than the counterfactual trajectory comprising 51.0 confirmed cases per 1 000 000 population. During the Olympic period (since 23 July), the observed cumulative number of cases was 61.0% higher than the counterfactual trajectory, comprising 143 072 and 89 210 confirmed cases (p=0.023), respectively. The counterfactual trajectory lagged 10 days behind the observed trends. Conclusions Given the increasing likelihood that new emerging infectious diseases will be reported in the future, we believe that the results of this study should serve as a sentinel warning for upcoming mega-events during COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Asian Games open with more athletes, unfamiliar sports

Welcome to the Asian Games, which feature at least 11,000 athletes in 2026. The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris had about 10,700.

Tokyo closes books on costly, pandemic-delayed Olympics

TOKYO (AP) -- Organizers of last year's COVID-delayed Tokyo Olympics were expected to place the final cost of the Games at 1.42 trillion yen, about tw

Official Costs of Tokyo Olympics Up by 22% to $15.4 billion

The Olympics are to open on July 23, 2021.

Tokyo's Diversity Olympics Dogged by Controversy

Since Tokyo 2020 can't really brag about tackling environmental issues, sustainability, cost cutting, or transparency, by default diversity and inclusiveness have become the branding agenda. This could be a positive legacy, but can the Olympics serve as a catalyst for Japan to reinvent itself? Probably not, due to the patriarchal elite's ethnonationalism and aversion to diversity and inclusion.

Tokyo's Diversity Olympics Dogged by Controversy

Since Tokyo 2020 can't really brag about tackling environmental issues, sustainability, cost cutting, or transparency, by default diversity and inclusiveness have become the branding agenda. This could be a positive legacy, but can the Olympics serve as a catalyst for Japan to reinvent itself? Probably not, due to the patriarchal elite's ethnonationalism and aversion to diversity and inclusion.

Tokyo Games offer 'playbooks' to assure athletes, sway public | CBC Sports

Tokyo organizers and the IOC on Wednesday began explaining in public just how they hope to do it, rolling out "playbooks" to detail the ways that 15,400 athletes will enter Japan — and exit Japan — with the Olympics opening on July 23 and the Paralympics a month later.

By the numbers: A look at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan

The Asian Games are often identified as the second most important multisports event after the Summer Olympic Games. They date from the first edition in 1951 in New Delhi, India, and were last held in...

IOC lines up French Alps, Salt Lake City to host 2030, 2034 Winter Olympics | CBC Sports

Salt Lake City being preferred as a shoo-in to host the 2034 Winter Olympics was expected. The surprise was the IOC favouring the French Alps bid for the 2030 edition on Wednesday.

Asian Games in Japan plagued by troubles | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

The organizers of the 2026 Asian Games currently underway in Japan have unveiled container houses for athletes, amid calls from some overseas participants for improvements to those facilities.