The hosting of the Olympic Games in Tokyo will certainly bring benefits for the Japanese capital. But how large?
TOKYO – The nomination this week end of Tokyo as the hosting city of the Olympic Games in 2020 is already raising questions. How will Japan be able to capitalize on the future event. The Japanese capital was the first in Asia to welcome already the games back to 1964. It was by then a showcase of Japan’s return to the world stage and its accession to the title of a world economic power. The first Tokyo Olympics turned into a huge success with some two million tickets being sold.
This time, Tokyo hopes to definitely turn the page of a decade marred into economic stagnation and social gloom. Tokyo’s government declared that the Olympics would help Japan recover from the 2011 tsunami/earthquake disaster. The terrible catstrophe left a large chunk of the north-east coast in ruins with the region of Fukushima symbolizing Japan’s nuclear failure. “Japan needs hope and dreams,” declared Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the IOC announcement.
Hosting the games will however not be cheap; For the future 2020 games, Tokyo will renovate the historical stadium and some of the former sites used back to 1964. It has already promised to build 22 of the 37 Olympic venues from scratch. And it will make sure that public transport will remain as efficient as ever, while airports will have to be improved once more to face the influx passengers. The city could welcome over eight million of visitors during the event.
Tokyo already has $4.5bn in an Olympic reserve fund. Hosting the 2020 Games could produce positive economic effects of more than $40bn and create more than 150,000 jobs, according to Japanese experts. The choice of Japan’s capital could be described as prudent pragmatism. While Istanbul –another bidder to the competition- is seen as politically instable, Madrid’s reputation has been tarnished by repeated chaos due to the tough economic environment and consequently protests. Tokyo appears politically stable and economically sound…
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
