TOKYO - People in Tokyo never were wildly enthusiastic about hosting the Olympic Games for a second time. Been there, done that, might have best described their attitude in two recent bids to host the games -- a losing bid in 2009 but a surprisingly strong comeback this year to win the right to host the 2020 Games.
"Lack of public passion" -- along with a strong sense that it was time for South America to have a chance -- combined to sink Tokyo's 2009 bid to host the 2016 Games. Moreover, the Olympic quest was closely identified with Tokyo's highly polarizing former governor, Shintaro Ishihara.
As recently as last May a public survey by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) found fewer than 50 percent of Tokyoites favoring the return of the Olympic Games. A poll by the municipal government showed 65 percent endorsing the move -- better perhaps, but still far short of the 85 percent plus recorded in Istanbul and Madrid. It was feared that apathy might sink the bid again.
Strong fundamentals combined with a more focused presentation were enough to win the bid against fairly weak competition. The Japanese delegation to Buenos Aires, headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself, included an Imperial princess, former medal winners, residents of the earthquake and tsunami-devastated Tohoku region. All played a role.
And now that the venue has been chosen, many Tokyoites suddenly discovered that they really wanted the Games in their city after all. Newspapers are full of proposed new projects timed to coincide with the opening of the Games in July, 2020, such as new subways, additional runways at airports and other infrastructure.
Japanese were never quite so blasé about the Games. Tokyoites cheered their medal winners at the London Olympics -- a record haul -- and Japan is probably the only host country that, nearly 50 year after the event, still commemorates the opening day of its Olympiad as a national holiday. (Technically Health and Sports Day, although it was moved from October 10 to the second Monday of the month in order to create a three-day holiday.)
The 1964 Olympics utterly transformed the landscape of Tokyo and to an extent Japan; new expressways crisscrossed the capital. The bullet train, which would become almost a national icon for Japan's economic miracle, made its first commercial run from Tokyo to Osaka on October 1, 1964, ten days before the opening ceremony.
The Games also sparked the building of world-class luxury hotels in downtown Tokyo, such as the Hotel New Otani -- opened one month before the Games began -- to to mention numerous others. There will be no lack of accommodations for the 10.1 million tourists the Tokyo government says will descend on the capital (although how they come up with such a precise figure for an event seven years in the future is remarkable).
One thing that might keep visitors away would, of course, be fear of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. It was thought to be an obstacle to Tokyo's selection, especially as the final decision happened to coincided with fresh and embarrassing reports of contaminated groundwater leaking from temporary storage tanks.
