Peng Shuai backlash leaves IOC facing familiar criticism over human rights

 The IOC isn't concerned with human rights or the health and welfare of a hosting nations citizens.  When the Summer Olympics were awarded to Beijing for 2008 the IOC assured the world that the CCP would adhere to human rights norms they didn't.  Any citizen that complained was jailed, whole neighbours were destroyed and business were forced to shut in the name of improving the IOC profits.  The Rio and Sochi Olympics were just corruption run a muck.  And then, came the pandemic of 2020 and postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.   As the IOC's only interest is the continuation of its profit streams the Japanese government at the height of that nations coronavirus epidemic and with the complete lack of support from the citizens couldn't cancel the games.  As the signed contract only allowed the IOC to do that.  With revenue on the line the IOC was never going cancel the games.    

With the Beijing Winter Games in peril the IOC decided that playing the useful propaganda idiot for the Chinese government was the best way of the impending disaster they found themselves in. 

Analysis: Olympic committee is accused of engaging in a ‘publicity stunt’ by taking part in video call

As human rights organisations and the world’s media questioned the whereabouts of the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, the International Olympic Committee opted for a “quiet diplomacy” approach, arguing that was the most effective way to deal with such a case.

“Experience shows that quiet diplomacy offers the best opportunity to find a solution for questions of such nature. This explains why the IOC will not comment any further at this stage,” the Lausanne-based organisation said in an emailed statement on Thursday about the case of Peng, who disappeared from public view after she made an accusation of sexual assault against a former senior Chinese official.

Yet the IOC’s approach to the Peng saga, which resulted in a half-hour-long video call between its president, Thomas Bach, and the player on Sunday, appeared to have failed to ease concerns. Instead, the committee was accused by rights activists of engaging in a “publicity stunt” for Beijing.

The Big Question About The Tokyo Olympics: Why Do The Japanese Have To Foot the Bill?

 As with any event associated with the Olympics or FIFA the citizens of the host city and country are stuck paying the full cost while the those two corrupt organizations flee the local with all the profits. 

Tokyo is just the latest in a long line of cities to get screwed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Just think, next years Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing. The only city to bid for the privilege of being screwed over by the IOC.   What is the total bill for Tokyo? Estimates start at 15 billion dollars.  The actual costs will probably never be known. 

The three parties obliged to foot the tab for both events held a year behind schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic are the Tokyo metropolitan government, the central government and the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee.

The share for the Tokyo metropolitan government is 717 billion yen, the figure for the central government is 221 billion yen and that for the organizing committee is 706 billion yen.

Fifty-seven percent of the sum, 938 billion yen, will be covered by taxpayer money.

As usual the Tokyo Olympics ended up losing money.  One of the reasons for this is that the host cities are ineligible to receive any revenue from sales at stadiums,   sponsorship deals, television rights or any other revenue stream controlled though the IOC.    

Olympics ceremony boss sacked over Holocaust joke

 

The show director of the Olympics opening ceremony has been dismissed, one day before the event is due to be held.

Tokyo 2021: Countdown during lockdown

 

Postponed by a year. Plagued by existential rumors. The Tokyo Olympics have had a rocky road, thus far. But what’s it like for the athletes? This film looks at how Olympic hopefuls experience Olympic-sized uncertainties, under the already strained circumstances of a global pandemic.

The Incredible Logistics of the Tokyo Olympics

 

Tom Cotton Tries to Cancel Olympian Gwen Berry

 

How safe are the Tokyo Olympics from COVID-19?

 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is facing increasing pressure from the public to postpone or cancel the upcoming summer games in Tokyo.

Japanese public opinion is largely against holding the world’s largest sporting event while the nation struggles to contain its fourth wave of coronavirus and vaccinate its population. Public health officials and the Tokyo Doctors Association fear the event will place more strain on already crowded hospitals. And the head of the country’s doctors’ union warned that a new Olympic COVID variant could result from holding the event.

Should Japan Cancel The Tokyo Olympics? | Street Poll

 

Tokyo Olympics: To Reporters We're Watching You

 That's the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics have announced that they'll be tracking foreign journalists through GPS. What could be more Ministry of Love than that. 

Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, said Tuesday that media personnel entering Japan from abroad could be monitored by GPS to make sure they follow the rules that will be spelled out in the third edition of the so-called Playbooks due out later this month.

Muto said media would be tested twice before they left home, and for several days after they enter Japan. He said they would have to sign a “pledge” to follow the rules, and would be restricted from free movement for the first 14 days.

“If any violations are found, measures such as suspension or deprivation of accreditation and deportation proceedings will be strictly applied,” Muto said.

Next they'll force them to join Kisha clubs (press clubs) so they can really have control over their reporting. 

Anti-Olympic petition gains over 175,000 signatures

 Two things to remember: One the IOC's only interest is making money and not really about sport and the Japanese government isn't about the cancel the games because the public feels dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is more important. No, the government of Yoshihide Suga is not only all in, they don't want to lose face by canceling the Olympic Games. 

An online petition calling for the Tokyo Olympics to be canceled has gained more than 175,000 signatures since being launched in Japan only days ago.

The rollout of the petition comes with Tokyo, Osaka and several other areas under a state of emergency with coronavirus infections rising - particularly new variants. The state of emergency is to expire on May 11, but some reports in Japan say it is likely to be extended.

The postponed Olympics are to open in just under three months on July 23.

The petition is addressed to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who has tentative plans to visit Japan later this month. He is expected to meet the Olympic torch relay on May 17 in Hiroshima, and perhaps also travel to Tokyo where small anti-Olympic are protests being planned.

Barakan Discovers: The Tokyo of 2020 - NHK WORLD-JAPAN

 

Tokyo was undergoing massive changes as it prepared to welcome the world to the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games until the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything an abrupt halt. Peter Barakan meets with people from a wide range of countries that have settled in Tokyo to get their perspectives on the current situation and what the future holds moving forward.

Japanese band sparks anger with Nazi-style Halloween costumes

  How ignorant does one have to be to not see the resemblance between these costumes  and Waffen SS uniforms?

A popular Japanese girl band set up by an executive board member of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee has been criticised for giving a Halloween concert in costumes modelled on Nazi Waffen-SS uniforms.

Keyakizaka46, a spin-off of the phenomenally popular AKB48 J-pop stable formed by Yasushi Akimoto, donned black military-style costumes similar to those worn by the paramilitary wing of Hitler’s Nazi party. Publicity photos showed members wearing peaked caps featuring a bird insignia that resembles the Parteiadler eagle emblem of the Nazis.

JR East To Add Numbers To All Stations In Tokyo By October

It's great idea except I can just see a tourist asking a JR East employee how to get to UEN 20 and the employee wondering what they're talking about.

East Japan Railway Co (JR East) will introduce a numbering system for all its stations in Tokyo starting in October, in a bid to to facilitate navigation for foreigners traveling within the capital ahead of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The numbering system will incorporate the combination of two alphabet letters showing the railway line to which it belongs and a two-digit number. It will also have the code and number of the station, enclosed in a box baring the same color as that of the train line.

For example, Shinjuku Station on the Yamanote Line will be coded JY17 –– “J” for JR, “Y” for Yamanote Line and “17” for its unique number. It will be colored light-green, symbolizing the color of the loop line.

They should really change the exit signs. For example: Shinjuku 3 chome which means absolutely nothing to your average tourist.  Shinjuku 3 chome is street block number 3.  If one didn't know you'd think they were trolling people.

Tokyo Olympics: When Newspapers Become Sponsoring Cheerleaders

The Japanese press is rather compliant in comparison to their western counterparts.  Self censorship and press club's known in Japan as Kisha ensure that any opposing view will be constrained by the need for inclusiveness and access to government press releases and officials.  You're asking why is this relevant? Because the four biggest newspapers in Japan became official sponsors of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games.  

On January 21 these publicans the Yomiuri Shinbun, Mainichi Shinbun, Nihon Keizai and the Asahi Shinbun announced in front page articles they had paid to become official sponsors of the games.  Usually one would view the press as arbiter of good governance and accountability over public funds being used for a private purpose.  With these four nationwide publicans agreeing to monetarily support the Olympics they have willingly abstained from their mission of holding the government and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee to transparency and accountability.


 Because it’s never too early to talk about how expensive the Olympics will be, Tokyo Shimbun pondered the question on Feb. 6 and found out that no one involved has a clue about the cost of the 2020 Games.

In 2007, the organizers of the 2012 London Olympics already had a good idea of how much they were going to pay — the equivalent of ¥1.6 trillion — and from that point the British government checked and revised the estimate every six months, and then made the figures public. In the end, their projection exceeded the actual amount paid by ¥60 billion.

Everyone Tokyo Shimbun asked shrugged. Last December, when news outlets reported that the cost of the games would be about ¥1.8 trillion, much more than the ¥350 billion Tokyo claimed when it made its initial bid, Toshiro Muto, the head of the organizing committee, said, “We don’t have a comprehensive expense estimate yet.” To gain some perspective, the paper asked an expert on public works projects, and he said that new projections for the construction of some venues are already three times their initial estimates.

Tokyo's New Olympic Stadium Is Only 8 Months Behind Schedule

Construction of the stadium for Tokyo's 2020 Olympics is only 8 months behind schedule because due to allegations of bid rigging for demolition of the old national stadium.  Not that most of the construction industry is controlled by the Yakuza or anything.  Wink, wink and they want their fair share of the kickbacks, payoffs and profits that come with large scale construction projects. 

Demolition work was supposed to begin last July but the project has been plagued by bid-rigging suspicions.

Some of the bids were reviewed by someone in the decision committee before all bids were in, a violation of the rules, according to the Japan Sport Council, which owns the stadium.
There have been other problems in the bidding as well.

In the first round of bidding, announced last March, all the bids surpassed the estimated costs and were rejected in May. In June, it was found that some bids were lower than the level set as the standard. A month later, complaints of bid-rigging surfaced. But an internal investigation in July and August found no evidence of bid-rigging, the council said in a statement last month.

It just shows you where the governments priorities lie.  There still thousands of people in Northern Japan still living in temporary housing following the March 11 2011 earthquake and tsunami.   That was almost four years ago and those people have seen little relief from the government.