Abstract
The Public Opinion Survey on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a longitudinal survey series aiming at grasping the changes in public interests in and values on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics to obtain basic data for attaining the world’s highest-standard broadcasting and related services for the 2020 coverage. This paper reports the findings from the second survey.The majority of the respondents (87%) are happy about (“happy” and “somewhat happy” combined) Tokyo’s hosting the Olympics and Paralympics. Those interested (“very much” or “somewhat”) in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics accounted for 80%, which is high, but compared to the survey conducted immediately after the Rio 2016 Olympics, “very much” decreased from 34% to 27%. Regarding what they are particularly interested in, the most cited answer was “successful performance of Japanese athletes and teams” (78%), which exceeded “world’s best standard sport competitions” (42%) and “medal count for each country/region” (17%).Those interested in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics made up 61%. To a question on the aspects that should communicated to the public, the highest percentage of respondents said the Paralympics “should be purely treated as a sports event” (39%), up from the previous year (37%) while 5% responded that it “should be presented with a focus on the welfare for people with an impairment.” Among the images of para sports, “touching” was the highest (63%). In regards to people who found it “touching,” we compiled the data according to their para-sport viewing experiences. As a result, 82% answered “I have seen televised para-sport competitions,” followed by “I have seen para sports on TV programs other than news or sports” (77%) and “I have seen para sports covered in TV news” (70%). While these figures are high, those who “have never seen para sports on TV” remained at 38%, which shows the more viewing experience, the better understanding of para sports.Regarding expected broadcasting services, requests for broadcasting services for other platforms, especially for smartphones, have increased from last year such as “catch-up services” (from 40% to 44%) and “simulcasting of TV coverage on the internet” (from 29% to 38%).
