Urban translation and the 2020 Tokyo Games

Abstract

When Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964, the event was seen as a welcome opportunity to present a new and peaceful Japan. The 1964 Olympics paved the way for Japan’s postwar economic development and its renewed global integration. The expectations for the ‘return’ of the Olympics and Paralympics in 2020 (henceforth, the ‘Tokyo Games’, ‘Tokyo 2020’ or ‘2020 Games’) have been equally high. For the 2020 Games—planned to be held in 2021 due to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic of 2020—the intention is to show the world that ‘Japan is back’ after decades of economic stagnation and the triple disaster of Fukushima in 2011. The Games are also seen as an occasion to present Tokyo as a cosmopolitan city and Japan as a multicultural society (Robson 2016 : 55). In short, Tokyo 2020 presents an opportunity to project a new image of the city (and Japan) to a global public. The Tokyo Games are also seen as an opportunity to transform Tokyo, and to use the case of Japan’s capital as a blueprint for changes across Japan (Ichikawa 2015). This desire already manifests in the slogan that accompanied Tokyo’s Olympic bid, which stated that ‘it is now that Japan needs the power of this dream’ ( ima, nippon ni wa kono yume no chikara ga hitsuyō da ) (TOCOPG 2012). Two questions come immediately to mind when refl ecting on the 2020 Games. What does Japan want to achieve by hosting the Games? In addition, will the 2020 Games be a similar success in their transformational potential as the 1964 Games were? The response to the fi rst question is partly formulated in the campaigns that rationalized Tokyo’s bid to host the Games. These answers are also prominently reproduced in the preparation for the megaevent. Three core concepts characterize its offi cial vision: ‘Achieving personal best’, ‘unity in diversity’ and ‘connecting to tomorrow’ (TOCOPG 2019). In the language of the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Organizing Committee, the 2020 Games are also meant to produce a legacy. This legacy is to be at the same time of a sportive, spiritual, cultural, social, environmental and economic nature. At least at the level of offi cial rhetoric, expectations for the Tokyo Games are skyhigh. The aim to create a social legacy merits particular attention for the topic of urban translation. The Bureau of Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Preparation intends to ‘create an intercultural society where foreign residents can participate and be successful to 8