Mega-events and Urban Space

Rethinking the Historical Meaning of the “Tokyo Olympic Games” in the Second Round

Abstract

In 2006, Tokyo Metropolitan Government officially started a bidding campaign for 2016 Olympic Games. Why now, and why in Tokyo? Spectacular events such as Olympic Games or EXPO currently play a role of an instant dream in post-industrial cities of the globalization era. These are rediscovered as a means of “Driving the Dream” in a globalizing economy. Hosting those events is important. Yet, in this context, processes in which both private and public sectors are cooperated and mobilized toward the event and, consequently, an existing urban regime is restructured into a more competitive one, are more important. These facts, as well as sweeping nationalism after September 11, explain, to a certain extent, the reason why top-ranked global cities, such as London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo, started a bid for Olympic Game again after a long interval. “Mega-event” politics of local government now provide a new arena in which various actors are competing each other for presenting urban agenda suitable for a more neo-liberal form of the city. Yet, current official statements on the 2016 Tokyo Olympic Games are not successful in creating a new economic and cultural discourse to mobilize civic initiatives and to legitimate its own standpoint. Consequences of mega-event politics will have to be reconsidered on the basis of Tokyo's ongoing experiences