Eviction of Residents from the Site of the National Olympic Stadium

Abstract

　In recent years, urban redevelopment due to mega-sporting events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup has led to eviction of nearby residents. In Japan, residents were evicted from a public housing estate located nearby the site of the National Olympic Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The purpose of this study is to examine how residents thought about their eviction and how the eviction affected their way of life and their daily activities.
　I explored the daily lives of residents in the estate as well as the activities of two local community organizations: a local neighborhood association and an older people’s association. The results of this research revealed first, that the mostly older residents based their lives on a series of relationships based on mutual support. Second, as they began to lose these relationships due to the eviction process, they utilized the two local community organizations to take action in response to it. Although they expressed opposition to the eviction at first, they came to terms with the resultant changes in their daily lives by taking action as part of their community organizations.
　It is argued that the residents’ daily and their eviction from their homes should be examined together because they were forced to respond to the eviction by simultaneously trying to rebuild their lives. This paper points to the necessity of developing new policies for sports events from the perspective of residents’ daily lives.