The Tokyo Olympics had a lot of turmoil until the last minute, but the opening ceremony was finally held yesterday. It was wonderful that players from 206 countries and regions entered with a smile and made me feel their own culture and nationality. The national stadium designed by Kengo Kuma was also beautiful, and when the fireworks were set off, I felt excited.
On the other hand, it was also an event where the financial and political structure of the Olympics surfaced and the sophistry of the upper management also emerged.
The Kyrgyz and Tajikistan teams did not wear masks. In some other countries, such as Pakistan, there were also players without masks. Wasn't it possible to check the condition of wearing masks before they entered the venue and take measures to ensure thorough implementation? The situation that Prime Minister Suga and Governor Koike called "holding the Olympics for safety and security" was not taking place, and that became known all over the world.
Although the order of entrance was set to the order of the Japanese syllabary of the country name, it was not clear how this rule was operated. Why was the United States the third from the end? If it's "America," it would have been among the first ones, and if it's "Beikoku," it should have been in the middle.
The reason for this seems to be that the U.S. television station NBC encouraged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to bring in the future host countries just before the host country so that the audience rating of the opening ceremony could be maintained until the end. It seems that this was possible because NBC's parent company Comcast paid the IOC $12 billion (1.3 trillion yen) for the Olympic rights from 2014 to 2032. According to this rule, Australia should have come near the end as the host country in 2032, but it followed the order of the Japanese syllabary.
The total budget for the Tokyo Olympics spent by Japan is about 3 trillion yen including related expenses. Could Japan say nothing to the IOC as a sovereign state?
The United States emphasizes the importance of observing international rules, but I don't like their method of changing the rules to their advantage. After all, it may be all about NBC's broadcast business, but the official U.S. team was treated specially and that scene was televised all over the world, giving the impression of a double standard and of America being a selfish country. How is this as an image strategy of the nation of the United States?
Also, how each country was called did not always match the name posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. For example, on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, Taiwan was "Taiwan," but at the opening ceremony it was called "Chinese Taipei," and Hong Kong was "Hong Kong, China." There may have been consideration for China.
What was interesting was that only in the German delegation, each player was waving the Hinomaru (the national flag of Japan, meaning the rising sun) in addition to the small flag of their own country. The reputation of German-born IOC President Bach is so bad in Japan that they may have wanted to calm the anger of the Japanese.
Mr. Bach gave unusually long remarks, and he continued to talk for 13 minutes. He used the word "solidarity" many times, and there was a lot of duplication in content. It was good that he spoke directly to the Japanese in Japanese in some part, but it is clear that he did not practice to get the whole speech in time. Imagine that the IOC president is someone with such low speech skills, which is the basis of a leader, probably because of interest involved.
Regarding the artistic performance, the way a singer sang the national anthem slightly deviated from the original melody. Personally, I think it would have been better to sing with more correct pronunciation and according to the score.
The last torchbearer was Naomi Osaka. Before that, at the attraction that the Olympic flag was carried by athletes, the European representative was a black woman. As a recent move, I feel that there is an idea that it is safe to put out black women for the time being.
However, I wonder why a person who can't even speak Japanese sufficiently had the biggest show at the opening ceremony. In terms of contribution to the Olympics, there are many more suitable Japanese athletes. The organizer may have been appealing that "I'm not racially discriminating." But it gave an impression that the typical American scheme of racial issues = white vs. black and disregarding Asians was introduced. It was a selection that I didn't feel right.
