Despite it being six years away, people are already protesting against the Japanese Olympics
Despite the fact that the games aren’t heading to Japan until 2020, there are already people protesting their arrival. Japanese anti-Olympics Facebook group “Hangorin-no-kai” objects to the forced evictions happening in Tokyo to make way for the new Olympic Stadium, and claim that aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster has not been properly dealt with yet, meaning that the money being spent on the Olympics could be put to better use.
A post on their Facebook says:
“Here in Tokyo the unnecessary redevelopment for the 2020 Olympics has already started with evictions of low-income populations from their homes. The radioactive contamination by the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster is nowhere near stabilisation, let alone ‘under control’ as prime minister Abe announced to the IOC. Tokyo is only swimming in the cloud of an illusion, while the people in Fukushima and many nameless radiation-exposed workers at the power plant are left without sufficient support from the state. The Olympics is nothing but a nightmare.”
There have also been reports of homeless people being forcibly removed from public parks in March 2013, and that around 200 households will be relocated from the Kasumigaoka public housing apartment in Shinjuku. For one unlucky 79-year-old evictee this is the second time that he has been uprooted to make way for the Olympics. According to the Japan Times Kohei Jinno, who previously had his business and home destroyed to make way for the 1964 Tokyo games, is now facing the same ordeal again. Unsurprisingly, Jinno now has a deep “grudge against the Olympics”, and doesn’t “want to see them” in Japan.
It is estimated that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could cost up to ¥300 billion – ¥130 billion of which is being spent on building a new 80,000 capacity stadium on the site of the old one from 1964. While most people in Japan are not completely opposed to the Olympics, there has been widespread condemnation of completely demolishing the old stadium and spending billions on a new one.
Japanese architect Edward Suzuki has argued that the existing national stadium should be renovated rather than demolished, and has started a Change.org petition – Saving Meijijingu Gaien and National Stadium for Future Generations. Unfortunately the problems don’t finish there – other controversies surrounding the 2020 Tokyo games include the old age of its organising committee, and the fact that athletes could be forced to compete in 35 degree heat.
Images: Facebook
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