Tokyo Olympics 2020

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- - - Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 and Fukushima - - -
東京オリンピック　2020


source :　street.chikadaigaku.net

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 pose a lot of problems for Tohoku !

- Tokyo Olympics, Tokyo 2020 -
now Fukushima is even more in the limelight !


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September 8, 2013

Fukushima wants govt. to do more - NHK news
Fukushima residents affected by the nuclear crisis have expressed both joy and discontent over the choice of Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games.
The nuclear disaster in March 2011 is still keeping nearly 150,000 people away from their homes due to a high level of radiation.
A woman in her 40s in Fukushima City said it is good that Tokyo won the Olympic bid. But she said she felt unhappy at hearing someone say "The Olympics site is far from Fukushima" to explain Tokyo's safety.
She is worried about repeated reports of radioactive waste water leaks from the crippled nuclear plant.
She stressed that the government should solve the issue as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the international community that the incident is under control.
Another woman in her 70s said she is very excited about Tokyo's hosting the Games and she wants to be at the opening ceremony with her family members. She lives apart from the rest of her family in a temporary shelter after being evacuated from a town near the plant.
A man in his 60s said he doesn't think people have a clear image of what will happen in the next 7 years given current circumstances. He said the government should address the nuclear crisis responsibly and try to improve evacuees' lives first rather than prepare for the Olympics.

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September 11, 2013

Abe’s assurance to IOC on nuclear plant called into question - Japan Times
One question that emerged among the public immediately after Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Olympics was whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an incorrect statement, or told an outright lie, about the contaminated water issue at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
During the Tokyo bid delegation’s final presentation before the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires on Saturday, Abe stressed that the “effects from the contaminated water have been perfectly blocked within the (artificial) bay” of the wrecked nuclear complex,
and said “the situation is under control.”


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September 13, 2013

TEPCO official: Leakage 'not under control' - NHK news
TEPCO official Kazuhiko Yamashita was speaking at a hearing on Friday in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. The session was organized by the opposition Democratic Party, with officials from the government and TEPCO taking part.
Yamashita apologized for the radioactive water leaks, saying that what's happening now goes beyond TEPCO's assumptions.
A lawmaker asked if Yamashita agrees with Abe's statement made last Saturday at a general meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires.
Yamashita replied that he believes the current situation is not under control.


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September 22, 2013

Japan to protest Fukushima-Olympics cartoons in French weekly
- Japan Times
Japan plans to complain to the French satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine after it published cartoons poking fun at Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympics in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
One cartoon published in the Sept. 11 edition of the paper shows two emaciated sumo wrestlers with extra limbs battling it out with nuclear reactors in the background. The caption reads: “Thanks to Fukushima, sumo has become an Olympic sport.”



source : japantimes.co.jp/news


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September 24, 2013

Tokyo puts Tohoku on games map, but will it be enough?
- Japan Times
Plans for events in region face several hurdles
As Tokyo wrapped up its winning bid to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, one speech during the final presentation resonated with members of the International Olympic Committee.
Mami Sato, a Paralympic athlete and a native of tsunami-hit Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, appeared to win the hearts of many on the committee.
In her speech, Sato, who competed in the Athens, Beijing and London Paralympics, said that after her hometown was destroyed on March 11, 2011, she and other athletes searched for ways to help the survivors, eventually bringing much-needed food, supplies and messages of hope to Kesennuma while also organizing sporting activities that showed the resilience of the Japanese spirit.
More than 200 Japanese and international athletes have made almost 1,000 visits to the affected areas, offering inspiration for adults and more than 50,000 children.
“What we have seen is the impact of the Olympic values as never before in Japan. And what the country has witnessed is that those precious values . . . excellence, friendship and respect . . . can be so much more than just words,” she said in the Olympic presentation.

Although Tokyo will play host to the world’s biggest sporting event in 2020, many Olympics-related programs are also planned in the Tohoku region leading up to the games. And just as Sato stressed, many people are hopeful that these events will be a much-needed boon for the recovery of the devastated areas.
“The Olympics and Paralympics can also be a way of showing gratitude to countries around the world that have supported Japan after the disaster,” said Michio Sawasaki, director of planning in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s sports bureau.
In December 2011, the metropolitan government set up a special committee to discuss Olympics-related projects that could be held in Tohoku. A year later, the committee released a final report with 32 planned projects.
The 17-member committee is comprised of directors of several sports-related organizations such as the Japanese Olympic Committee and Athletic Associations of Tokyo. The panel also has some members from disaster-hit areas in Tohoku.
“This is very important to us, because it was very encouraging to hear opinions from Tohoku residents who said they are willing to take part in the event and want to show their gratitude to the world for supporting them after the disasters,” Sawasaki said.
Some of the proposed 32 projects include holding a preliminary round soccer match at Miyagi Stadium, having the torch relay go through the Tohoku region on its way to Tokyo, and having Tohoku-based companies supply construction materials and goods needed for the events.
Sawasaki said the next step is for the municipalities and organizations involved in the projects to figure out how each one can be realized.
“No matter what, we want the Olympic torch relay at the opening event to run through the Tohoku area. We also want to say thank you to the world for all the support and encouraging words we received after the disaster at the opening and closing ceremonies,” he said.

A number of education programs have also been proposed, including having child reporters from Tohoku cover the Olympics and holding camps in the region for youths from different countries around the world.
But several hurdles still remain.
In the case of the torch relay plan, which would take runners through Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, Japan must still get the planned route approved by the IOC.
There have also been concerns about holding the soccer matches in Miyagi Stadium.
Sendai resident Mihoko Terada said that if Japan were to hold the matches there, they must think about accessibility.
“I doubt whether the plan could really be carried out,” she said. “Miyagi Stadium is very inconveniently located, without any train station nearby. It would be better if the government first thought about building a JR station near the stadium.”

Meanwhile, 3/11 survivors have mixed feelings about whether the Olympics can really help revitalize their still-ailing hometowns.
“Many people in Tohoku don’t have much interest in the Olympics,” Terada said. “It’s because people are still trying to rebuild their everyday lives after the disasters, and they can’t be in a festive mood.”
Yasuo Yamada, a Tokyo businessman who regularly visits the disaster-hit coastal city of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, for volunteer work — especially for children — agrees.
Yamada said that although he was excited when Tokyo won the Olympic bid, he felt people in Tohoku were rather indifferent to the news.
With so many survivors still living in cramped temporary housing units, Yamada said, a lot of people aren’t happy to see the government spending so much cash on Olympic-related events.
Many, he said, believe the government is not doing enough to rebuild the area, and with the Olympics now an inevitability, they fear the main priority will shift to hosting the games.
source : www.japantimes.co.jp


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October 20, 2013

Fukushima 2020: Will Japan be able to keep the nuclear situation under control?
Thirty seconds into what may ultimately be regarded as one of the defining speeches of his career, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slowly raised his hands chest high, then spread them out sideways in a gesture of confidence.

. . . The nuclear accident, he said, “has never done and will never do any damage to Tokyo.”
. . . “On a scale of zero to 10,
I’d say the decommissioning process has advanced by about 0.1 (since the nuclear accident),” said Michio Ishikawa, president of the Association for Nuclear Decommissioning Study.

“I think the prime minister was right in saying that things are under control now,” Ishikawa said, but
“predicting what the situation will be in 2020 is still very difficult.”
source : www.japantimes.co.jp

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. TEPCO - problems since 2013 - .





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