2015 Volume 86 Pages 3-17
This paper aims to study the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games in order to examine how these events will influence the future of Japanese society and mass media. If one includes the 1940 games that were never actually held due to World War II, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are the third Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Tokyo. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics provided an opportunity to show the world that Japan had recovered from its defeat in World War II and returned as a member of the international community. Today, parties inside and outside Japan expect the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to promote recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. In reality, however, there is a risk that the Olympic Games will be used as a means to help Tokyo survive as a global city while seriously jeopardizing the interests of other regions of Japan. Unlike in 1964, it may be difficult to organize the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games as a national event actively supported by all Japanese people. The only possibility for a national event is nationwide development of facilities for the Paralympic games. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, advances in ICT technology will likely enable individuals to broadcast videos that will compete with broadcasting by mass media. Considering that broadcasting fees provided by TV stations and advertising agencies constitute a major financial source for the present over-sized Olympic Games, the risk that these fees may not be obtained may prove lethal to the event in 2020. At the same time, such a crisis would also place the mass media at a crossroads in which it must ensure the survival of its business in the face of an overflow of network technologies.
