Message from the editor-in-chief

Dear reader, Mega-events draw international attention. They also provide a prism or lens through which social, political and economic conditions and structures of the host nation become diffracted and more clearly visible. The Tokyo 2020–21 Olympic and Paralympic Games were no exception. Asked about what we associate with the games today, most of us will probably mention the COVID-19 pandemic. The games fell twice victim to the pandemic, first in 2020, when the mega-event had to be postponed, and second in 2021, when it was finally held without on-site spectators. For people living in Tokyo, it was a surreal experience. The games were shielded from them. They were turned into a pure media event. The pandemic changed Japan’s early enthusiasm for the games into opposition. Had there been a referendum, Tokyo 2020 might have been called off. But in the end, the Japanese and Tokyo metropolitan governments had to surrender to their contractual obligations dictated by the IOC. The research papers collected in this special issue look back from very different, but mostly critical angles: the planning phase of the games in the context of Tokyo’s urban development strategy; the rituals surrounding the games, the narratives created by them and their impact on the how the event will be remembered; the political polarization created by holding the event as seen in online communication channels; anti-Olympic activism in the context of Japan’s recent history of political protests; the ambiguous attitudes towards both the 1964 and the 2020 games as seen through the manga Akira and its creator Ōtomo Katsuhiro. Two articles attempt to explicitly evaluate the games. The first assesses success and failure by looking at various evaluation criteria and by examining different stakeholder groups. The second paper portrays the event as a manifestation of “capitalist realism” driven by financial interests. The research papers are complemented by two short commentaries, which point to various negative news surrounding the games including corruption charges. Again, this issue also contains book reviews. The topics of the four reviewed publications cover Japan’s earthquake resilience, coral reef conservation in Okinawa, and regional revitalization through urban-rural migration, entrepreneurship and internationalization. Let me finish with a positive note on the development of our journal. The journal continues to be accessible through more than 2,600 institutions via subscriptions and