TOKYO – They turned off the engine, removed the keys, deleted the images. They divorced the Games as it were, despite being the most important sponsor. They are the first Olympic conscientious objectors, three days after the inaugural ceremony. Toyota, the Japanese carmaker, will no longer air the television commercials recorded with athletes for Tokyo 2020. It does not want a head-on collision with its people, nor does it want consumers to associate its name with the Olympics. The Five Circles are a tattoo to be removed. “There are a lot of problems with these Games that are proving difficult to understand.” 68% of the Japanese are hostile to the demonstration, and believe that the government is unable to cope with the new wave of the virus that finds a quick means of contamination in the Five Circles. So Jun NagataToyota communications chief said: no commercials and no advertisements. This is despite the fact that about 200 athletes competing between the Olympics and Paralympics are affiliated with Toyota, including the swimmer. Takeshi Kawamoto and the softball player Miu Goto. “However, we will fully support the athletes and contribute to the Games by providing vehicles and other means”. The financing remains, Toyota Motor signed an eight-year agreement with the IOC in 2015 worth almost 1 billion dollars, but in front of the public it is better not to flaunt what has become a disgrace. And just to remove any doubt the CEO Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company founder, will not be at the opening ceremony. They are hot games, better not to get burned. And now even 60 large Japanese companies that have paid more than 330 billion yen are faced with the dilemma: to distance themselves from Tokyo 2020 or remain associated with the Games that few want?
Sponsors and record rights, expenses and reimbursements: Japan’s Olympics “at all costs”
by Ettore Livini
It is a doubt that he does not have Maya Yoshida, 32, captain of the Japanese Olympic team and defender of Sampdoria. “I think that a lot of money from our taxes has been used to finance this Olympics, but despite this people will not be able to follow them live. So I wonder what these Games are for, because it is clear that we athletes would like to play and compete in front of the fans. Our families have sacrificed themselves and have had to endure many things, but now our loved ones are not allowed here and even if they cannot attend the matches the question remains: what is all this for? I really hope that certain decisions will be reconsidered “.
It is a schizophrenic situation: Games closed to the public, but Japan open to another sport. So far the J-League of football and the baseball championship have been held open doors, albeit with a limited number of spectators. Who were also in Nagoya at the Grand Sumo tournament where old champion Hakuho, 36, won his 45th title and beat young rival Terunofuji. Even Tokyo’s motorists are angry, before the pandemic it was decided that during the Olympic period the fare for entry into the ring roads would be increased and now that the Olympic traffic of tourists is not there, no one has thought of reducing the price.
Games had to be friendly, friendly, instead they are divisive and full of hostility. The polls continue to say that the population does not want them and that for the premier’s party Yoshihide Suga, rating ever so low (35.9%), they will be a catastrophe, considering also in the autumn there is a vote and that from time to time they ask for the torpedoing of many ministers. For controversy related to bullying the musician was forced to resign Keigo Oyamada, aka Cornelius, responsible for the soundtrack of the inaugural ceremony because at school as a boy he forced a disabled person to eat his own feces. The diplomatic attempts also failed: South Korean President Moon Jae-in will not come to Tokyo for the (secret) summit with Suga because a Japanese diplomat defined his attempt at an agreement “a masturbation”. While the Vice President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas and the Slovenian premier, Janez Janša they ask President Bach that their delegation parade with the flag of the European Union. Political concerns were not enough and Covid also brought oysters, unwanted guests of the Sea Forest Watreway, home to the canoe and rowing competitions. Removing the shellfish cost $ 1.28 million in repairs to the damage they had created by attaching to floating breakwaters. 14 tons of oysters: wasn’t it better to eat them?
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