Japan Journal of Sport Sociology
Online ISSN : 2185-8691
Print ISSN : 0919-2751
ISSN-L : 0919-2751
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The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games:
“Fact and Fiction” of their Legacy Strategy
Toshio SAEKI
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2015 Volume 23 Issue 2 Pages 25-44

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Abstract

 In July 2020, the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo again. As is generally known, today’s Olympic Games have turned into a mega apparatus which stimulates our desires and organizes them into power games.
 In Japan there are mixtures of “the ideal and the real”, “brand and fake”, “real intention and stated reason’, which are embodied by the catchphrase, “The Restoration from the East Japan Disaster toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games”. In this paper I will examine the bidding process and the bidding plan for the 2020 Games from the perspective of “fact and fiction”.
 First, the Tokyo Olympics bid was based on the debt repayment of Tokyo Waterfront Development Plan, which was being pushed through by the then Governor, Shintaro Ishihara.
 Second, I will make clear that the bidding promotion was fabricated as if it represented an “all Japan” project. I will also indicate how discourses on “The Restoration from the East Japan Disaster toward the 2020 Olympic Games” were employed for political gain.
 Third, I will focus on the legacy strategy of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
 By analyzing the problems of The New National Stadium construction and the engagement about legacy in the Olympic host plan, I will argue about how the legacy strategy failed. This legacy strategy has been received positively in many countries. However, through examining it from the viewpoints of “fact and fiction”I will argue that it is simply an IOC power strategy.
 Finally, I will study the new IOC policy, “agenda 2020” from the same viewpoint. I will argue that it is a new hegemonic strategy to maintain the power of the IOC and the Olympic Games.

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© 2015 Japan Journal of Sport Sociology
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