Caroline Kennedy, Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Admires “Resilience” at Tokyo Olympics | Japan olympics

This summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo has attracted the attention of spectators around the world, including Carolyn Kennedy, the former US ambassador to Japan. The daughter of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy Onassis served as ambassador under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017. Looking back on her time in Japan, she said that she is now heavily invested in this year’s Games.

The Japanese government had begun preparations for this year’s Games while Kennedy was ambassador, so she became familiar with the broader process behind the founding of the Olympic City. He also discussed how unfortunate it was that Covid forced the postponement of the Games by a year. However, Kennedy described that this ability to organize mass after a pandemic reflected the tenacity of the Japanese people.

The last (and first) time Tokyo hosted the Olympics was in 1964, Shirahashi – then a student – barely stayed home. He feels excited to walk around the city that attracted thousands of foreign visitors and became the focus of the world.

This time, effectively no Olympic spectators are allowed in Tokyo, which is under a state of emergency for most of 2021. The delayed Olympics, the 74-year-old says, “feel just like any other Games held in other places.”

© Hiroko Oshima. illustration by
Asia Insights
Olympics and vaccine progress spared Japanese spending
Tokyo’s cautious approach on huge sporting event fails to secure widespread public trust

AKANE OKUTSU and MITSURU OBE, Nikkei staff writer
Aug 3, 2021 06:00 JST
Tokyo – For Sanshiro Shirahashi, there is currently no place like home.

The last (and first) time Tokyo hosted the Olympics was in 1964, Shirahashi – then a student – barely stayed home. He feels excited to walk around the city that attracted thousands of foreign visitors and became the focus of the world.

This time, effectively no Olympic spectators are allowed in Tokyo, which is under a state of emergency for most of 2021. The delayed Olympics, the 74-year-old says, “feel just like any other Games held in other places.”

Still, Shirahashi has found some enjoyment from watching the Olympics at home – where Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has told people to stay – and described the way Japan won two gold medals at the inaugural skateboarding competition as “fantastic”.

“Right now, the best way to pass the time is to watch TV and drink beer at home,” he says.

Fully vaccinated Shirahashi has got plenty of company to stay at home. According to Video Research, the home viewing rate for the Olympic Opening Ceremony was 56.4%, easily higher than the 30% in the hit TV drama series Hanzawa Naoki. The rate reflects the families who watched the broadcast in real-time.

Players clash at the Olympic Stadium without spectators on August 2 (Photo by Hirofumi Yamamoto)
Shirahashi has a lot of company by being a fully vaccinated senior. Suga said Friday that 80% of seniors expected to be fully vaccinated at the end of July.

But too few young Japanese have been vaccinated, a barrier to economic growth and to resume what Suga calls a “safe, normal life.” And the lack of business during the Olympics without spectators and Tokyo’s fourth emergency this year – which has been expanded in area and length – mean the Games can’t boost consumption in the long run, which is nearly half of Japan’s. responsible for the part. Gross Domestic Product.

What thwarted Japan’s strong consumption hopes is the fact that Japan is far from reaching safe, normal life, especially in Tokyo and other parts of the country under a state of emergency. The current one, the fourth one for Tokyo, which began before the Olympics, has been extended (and geographically expanded) from the original 22 August to 31 August.

Toshihiro Nagahama, acting chief economist at the Tokyo-based Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, expects consumer spending to start improving after September – but relies on vaccinations to reduce infections and ease trade restrictions.

Japan’s cautious approach by the government on the huge sporting event hasn’t helped Suga boost Asia’s second-largest economy. Although Japan’s vaccination coverage has improved significantly, economic activity is far from normal.

Data on how household consumption has increased – or not – over the Olympic period from July 23 to August 8 will not be available for at least another month. The consumption figures for June will be announced on Friday.

Retail sales figures for June have already been released, and show that Japan posted a modest 0.1% gain compared to a year earlier. In the same month, China registered an annual growth of 12.1%, while the United States registered a growth of 18.0%

Even before COVID-19 began battering the world, consumer spending in Japan was dented by the government’s October 2019 hike in its consumption tax to 10% from 8%.

People wait to be get vaccinated in Japan’s Aichi prefecture in May. (Photo by Yuki Nakao)

In normal, pre-pandemic years, consumer spending gets some boost in July-August because of heavy domestic vacation travel by families. But with the state of emergency, many people – like Shirahashi – aren’t going anywhere.

But there are others who plan to travel in spite of the government asking citizens to avoid “unnecessary and unessential” travel. Bookings for All Nippon Airways (ANA) domestic flights between August 6 and August 15, a day when many visit relatives and ancestral graves, are more than 30% higher than a year earlier – when there was no emergency in effect.

Under the emergency, restaurants have been asked to close at 8 pm and to not serve alcohol. Provisions in Japan’s state of emergency declarations, unlike those in some countries, are more appeals for change to help contain COVID-19 rather than orders that carry penalties for offenders. But authorities can fine some businesses, though not individuals, and in what appears to be the first instance, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced in July that four businesses were fined for staying open after 8 pm.

“Lives over Olympics”

The Olympic games have been scaled down from original plans, with only a third of the originally expected 180,000 people entering the country. Audiences are banned at most events and athletes wear masks when not competing. But 27 new covid-19 cases linked to the games were announced on Friday, bringing the total so far to 220. At least one athlete has had to withdraw due to a positive test. Protests against the games have taken place in Tokyo, with hundreds marching on the country’s national stadium with placards urging the government to put “Lives over Olympics”.

Europe saw a similar rise in infections during the Euro 2020 tournament. A decline in cases over previous months came to an end in July in part because of large numbers of people travelling to matches, said the World Health Organization. Germany’s interior minister Horst Seehofer said at the time that the decision to allow crowds was been “utterly irresponsible”.

But Kevin Tyler at the University of East Anglia, UK, says there is no clear evidence of a link between the games and the rise in infections, because competitors are tightly bubbled, and that the surging case numbers are instead down to the delta variant having made its way to Japan.

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