Japan

Newspapers this week showed groups of elated Japanese when the decision of the IOC to give Tokyo the Olympics was announced. While I can't say the pictures were contrived, it's fair to say that the degree of ambivalence is considerably higher than such pictures indicate. The same is no doubt true of any Olympics where there are concerns about whether the city and country can afford the massive expense that the Olympics requires.

Tokyo is not a young city, and Japan is not a young country; there is more demand for nursing homes than there is for sports stadiums. The pools are set to hydotherapy temperatures presumably to cater for stroke rehabilitation, not for the local wanna-be lap nazis. Misgivings about spending on the Olympic village are highlighted by photo comparisions of the very basic temporary housing of forced evacuees from the area around Dai-ichi. (thanks Ru). Dumps of radioactivity into the Pacific are disconcerting at the very least, even though New Scientist apparently says it's not much of a problem, PM Abe's assurances during the bid that "Tokyo has never been affected by radiation and never will be" seemed particularly callous - as much to say it doesn't matter if the people who live near the plant or up and down the coast from the plant face ongoing raised levels of radiation and have their livelihoods destroyed, so long as Tokyo is OK.

The disparity is not just geographical, it's also socio-economic. Yesterday walking through Akihabara I was shocked at the condition of many of the homeless people there. Homeless people in Tokyo used to be essentially normal people by the standard of a contemporary post industrial society - well dressed, clean, socialized. The men in the park yesterday were emaciated, absolutely filthy and presumably incontinent based on the stench. They were atomized in their mental illnesses, with no sense of camaraderie that used to characterize (and still does in some places) homeless people. One man who had a trolley of rotting garbage had clearly just wet himself. He was wandering, unable to walk in a straight line, as as far as I could see it was not from drugs or alcohol. If I see desperate looking homeless people, I often buy them a lunch box and coffee, but this man was so far gone I wasn't game to approach him. It's extremely rare for me to feel like this about a homeless person. Social welfare is limited here and there isn't the same network of churches and charities that look out for people. The health and wealth gap is becoming increasing stark. It's hard not to feel discomfort with the Olympics.

And yet the Olympics, are here now ( according to Andrew de Wit because Tokyo's was the best of three weak bids). And there is an onus on Tokyo and Japan to make the Olympics good for the country. TEPCO and the National Govt. will be under a lot of pressure to do a better job with Dai-ichi with the increased international scrutiny. The bid was about being a green games, and more than ever Japan needs to be imaginative with new energies. There is a growing realization that it's no longer OK to be relying on nuclear. Being entrusted with the Games presumably will also force Japan to be less antagonistic to its neighbours and rein in the ugly right. Japan will also be faced with other cultures en masse and will have to accommodate. Last week a Hokkaido onsen banned a sixty year old Maori woman who was presenting at an indigenous conference because she had tribal facial tattoos.

I hope the Games will be Japan's Games and not simply consolidate the Tokyo centric nature of government here. I hope the Olympics will give Japanese the chance to reflect on Japan and develop a positive and outward looking sense of national identity, rather the inward looking, defensive victim-mixed-with-contrived-superiority narrative that characterizes much of the way Japan sees itself in relation to other countries. I hope that the country can gain vigour and the young people who have never known anything but a recessed economy can find confidence and re-energize the country, for it is sorely needed.

It's too late now to ruminate about whether or not we should have them, the onus is on us, and not just the government, to make sure they benefit the country.