Japan scratches its head over Olympic legacy

In Tokyo for a conference about the potential legacies of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, I was struck by how little anyone seems to have thought about it. Admittedly, legacy wasn’t key to the Tokyo bid. While London sold itself to the IOC in terms of “inspiring a generation” of young people, Tokyo was more about being a safe pair of hands. Tokyo 2020 was to be well-organised, well-funded, compact, safe – and underpinned by Japan’s fabulous transport infrastructure.

Nobody doubts that Tokyo can deliver a great Games. But apart from that, what is Japan hoping to achieve? At the moment, everyone seems simply to pin their own wish list on 2020. Hakubun Shimomura, the Minister for Education and Sport (among other things), and head of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, said that he wanted the legacy to be “a new Japan”, based on “dō” (Tao), meaning “discipline and a true way of life” – “a higher discipline for the way we live”. It was a striking reminder of the social conservatism currently dominating Japanese politics. Compared with London’s detailed statistics on, for instance, academic achievement in the Olympic boroughs of East London, it sounded suspiciously like pie in the sky. What sort of practical policy would deliver “dō”, I wondered, and how would anybody measure its success or failure?

Various panellists presented their own wish lists for Japan’s future, often only mentioning the Olympics in passing. One posited a Japan where the focus is on quality of life, particularly for the elderly, rather than further economic growth. Another saw the Olympics as an opportunity to turn Tokyo into Japan’s leading international financial centre. There was pious talk about ensuring that the Olympics benefit the disaster-stricken Tohoku region, though the reality at the moment is that Tohoku and the Olympics are competing for construction-related resources, to the detriment of both.

When it was suggested that the Olympics could be used to internationalise Japanese universities, an academic in the audience burst out in frustration. He agreed with the objective, but why did it have to wait for the Olympics? The reply, essentially, was that the Olympics offers a deadline, and an opportunity to get the Japanese people working together to achieve something big – reminiscent of the “income doubling plan” of the 1960s.

This is all very well, but with six years to go, Tokyo now needs to get more specific about what it the Olympic legacy is intended to be, and how those objectives can be built into the delivery of the project. Here are some of the more positive ideas mentioned:

Koji Murofushi, the Sports Director for Tokyo 2020, stated that he wanted the Olympics to embrace every generation, not just young people. There’s a clear contrast here with London 2012, and a nod to Japan’s ageing population. If Japan – who fielded a 71-year old show jumper at London 2012 – can use Tokyo 2020 to get more elderly people involved in physical activity, there will be valuable lessons to be learnt, given that most other developed countries also have ageing populations.

A linked aspect is volunteering, seen as one of the great successes of London 2012. Japan’s retirees are an important potential volunteer pool, and there will be significant long-term benefits on all sides if they can be persuaded to make volunteering a normal part of life in retirement.

Tokyo’s 1964 Olympics showcased its modern technologies, including the famous bullet train, which started operations that year. The world expects great technology from Japan, and there’s still time to pull something out of the hat. Suggestions included a Maglev train linking Shinagawa (Tokyo’s main southern terminus) and Haneda Airport, hydrogen cars, and driverless vehicles to ferry athletes around. At the very least, Japan needs to sort out its current interconnectivity problems, ensuring that foreign mobile phones will work, and that there’s plenty of free wifi usable by people without Japanese mobile contracts.

Even in Tokyo, foreign tourism in Japan is hampered by language issues. Somebody is going to have to translate a lot of restaurant menus, for a start. Training large numbers of young Japanese to speak passable English and other major languages isn’t going to be cheap, but could leave the biggest economic legacy of all, resulting in more inbound tourism and investment, and improved business opportunities for Japanese companies overseas.

There was surprisingly little talk of the Paralympics. Given its elderly population, Japan already scores highly on accessibility in public facilities, but I fear that younger disabled people are still stigmatised. One of London’s great successes was in changing perceptions about disability, and I’d like to see Tokyo try and match this achievement.

Ultimately, I think the legacy Japan should be aiming for is a stronger connection with the rest of the world. The 1964 Olympics was about demonstrating that post-War Japan had come of an age as an advanced and peaceful country. It remains both of those things but, although it has tremendous cultural attractions, its idiosyncrasies, and its language difficulties, have hindered its efforts on the global stage. If Japan can demonstrate in 2020 that it’s a straightforward place for foreigners to operate in and enjoy, that will be a legacy worth leaving.

Jason James
Director General, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation