Great results by Japan's judo

All the judo events at Rio has finished.

Look at the following result of Japanese!

At almost all the classes, they got medals!
Especially, men didn't miss any class!!

However, Japanese judoists who missed a gold medal show their disappointment. It's a usual scene, because getting a gold medal is considered as their mission or vital thing.
I often hear Japanese judoists say that "anything other than a gold medal is all the same" or "there is a world of difference between gold and silver."
There is some kind of tragic atmosphere among them, and I don't like it.

There are many many judoists all over the world. Becoming TOP 3 among them is incredibly outstanding thing. I want them to congratulate themselves and praise their own effort they have been making in the past.

Also, I think showing disappointment is something like blasphemy toward silver and bronze medals. Please respect silver and bronze medals more.

Japanese first gold medal is...

As soon as the Rio Olympics started, a Japanese swimmer Kosuke Hagino got the gold medal at 400-meter individual swimming medley. It was the first gold medal Japanese got in this Rio Olympics.

Much to our Japanese delight, Daiya Seto got the bronze medal at this event. Two Japanese stood the podium together!

Great start!

Chase Kalisz (the US), Hagino, Seto

(from: http://cyclestyle.net)

Hagino and Seto are the same age and have been good rivals since they were kids.

Left: Hagino, Right: Seto

(from: http://mako12i-color.hatenablog.com)

They aimed a one-two finish. Unfortunately they couldn't achieve it, but anyway, they got a fantastic result!!

The Opening Ceremony - Rio

It has been a week since the Rio Olympics started, which means it' already halfway.

Japanese athletes are doing very well so far, more than we expected. Great!!

I want to write about each event, but before that, about the Opening Ceremony!



I'm excited and very impressed whenever I watch Olympic opening ceremonies. So I was really looking forward to watching it.

This time, I'll write two things.

One is;

There are many Japanese immigrants and their children, grandchildren... in Brazil.
The history of Brazil was represented in the ceremony and it included the scene of Japanese people emigrated to Brazil.

(from: http://www.asahi.com)

 (from: http://www.chunichi.co.jp)

This part was represented at 8:15pm...... that is 8:15am 6th August - Japan time.

6th August is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is held every year, and a moment of silence is observed at 8:15am in the ceremony because it was when the atomic bomb was dropped.

It was intentionally staged.



The other is;

The Olympic cauldron. I like it.
In recent Olympics, Olympic cauldrons and the ceremony itself were getting more and more large-scale.
But this time, the Olympic cauldron seems simple and not so big, but actually it was designed intricately. Great!

 (from: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kensyou_jikenbo)

(from: http://live.sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp)

The producer of the ceremony commented four days before the ceremony.

"The Rio de Janeiro Olympics opening ceremony on Friday will break with the recent tradition of large-scale and expensive shows, featuring a low-emissions cauldron and an "analogue" experience."

(from the following article.)
 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-ceremony-idUSKCN10C37T

Great!

Catch up --- Tokyo Governor Issue

December 2013
Naoki Inose resigned due to his corruption scandal.

I've written about it before.

My articles;

http://mytokyoolympics.blogspot.jp/2013/12/tokyo-governer-acts-as-drag-again.html

http://mytokyoolympics.blogspot.jp/2013/12/tokyo-governor-inose-finally-resigned.html

July 2016
The next Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe resigned due to the misuse of political funds.

His excuse press conference

(from: http://www.iza.ne.jp)

He had been using political funds for private purposes, for example,
Family trip
Dinning out with his family
Buying paintings
Buying comics
Cloths        etc.
Such kinds of things were revealed one after another.
He said each time hopelessly stupid and shallow excuses.

Also, his TOO luxury business trips were revealed.

He tried hard to remain the Tokyo governor. Even after his resignation was decided, he begged for being the governor until September. He certainly wanted to participate in the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics to receive the Olympic flag.

He is pathetic.

July 2016
Yuriko Koike was elected the Tokyo governor.

 Koike at here inaugural press conference

(from: www.sankei.com)

There were some complicated issues in the gubernatorial election, but I won't mention those here because they are not Olympic issues but politics issues.

She won a landslide election.


Actually, it is said that she and the president of the TOCOG* Yoshiro Mori has been on bad terms.
(*TOCOG: The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games)

And, Koike run for the governor against intention of the LDP which she belongs and the candidate who the LDP supported took a shellacking. So there is something between Koike and the LDP. Prime minister Abe assigned Tamayo Marukawa as the Olympic minister just after Koike became the governor.

New Olympic minister, Tamayo Marukawa

 (from: www.sankei.com) 

Marukawa is seen as a kind of countermeasure against Koike.

For success of the Tokyo Olympics, those 3 persons need to work together in close coordination though........

Mori, Koike, Marukawa

(from: www.hochi.co.jp)

Catch up --- The Olympics Main Stadium Issue

The national Stadium will be rebuilt and used as the main Stadium of the Tokyo Olympics.


The first design

The deign by a British architect Zaha Hadid.was selected.

(from: https://www.jpnsport.go.jp)

Neo-futuristic design!

Kind of criteria of the competition were;

- It will be also used for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
- 80,000 capacity
- Retractable roof
- 290,000m2
- The total construction cost is about  130 billion yen     etc.

It turned up involving enormous cost!

It was estimated 300 billion yen!!!!!

For reference, the cost of building the main stadium for other Olympics were;
London: 76 billion yen
Sydney: 64 billion yen
Athens: 36 billion yen ----> 8 stadiums can be built by using 300 billion yen!

The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Shimomura announced that they will simplify the stadium plan, such as;
- The retractable roof is canceled
- Some of the seats will be makeshift ones.

However, it was still controversial.

Then finally,

17th July 2015
The stadium design and the plan were "SCRAPPED".

The Prime Minister Abe expressed it.
He also expressed abandoning the plan to use the stadium for the 2019 Rugby World Cup because it can't make it in time.

The competition again

Only two groups participated the competition, because there were many restrictions in the competition.

[Design A]

 (from: http://www.huffingtonpost.jp)

[Design B]

 (from: http://www.huffingtonpost.jp)

 

December 2015
Design A was selected.

Actually, I preferred the B design...

There still are problems...

No Air Conditioners in the stadium!
It was decided that air Conditioners will not be installed in the stadium.
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!
Air conditioner is MUST for a stadium in terrible horrible humid Japan's summer.
Many people from abroad will come to spectate the opening and closing ceremony and games. It could become a bad memory for them.
I hope it wouldn't cause many people to feel sick due to oppressive humidity.
Japan must improve and prepare the medical care system. Horrible.

No Olympic cauldron in the stadium!!!
It was found that the design of the stadium doesn't have the Olympic cauldron.
Huh?!?!?!?!?!
It was found even 3 months after the design was decided.
Sloppy, sloppy, incredibly sloppy!
The Olympic cauldron might be set outside the stadium, nothing has been decided though.

Using even more money!?
Some politicians in the LDP made a proposal to the government to make the seats in the stadium from wood. Wooden seats.
Plastic seats will cost around 2 billion yen, but Wooden seats will cost double or triple. On top of it, the maintenance and operation cost for the next 50 years will be tens of billions of yen!

They have cut the cost of the indispensable things - air conditioners that is around 9 billion yen (actually this is incredibly overestimated, according to an architect firm.).
And they try using much more money for unnecessary things.
This is a typical train of thought of people in public organizations.

Catch up --- the Emblem Issue

While I was away from this blog, some problems regarding the Tokyo Olympics have happened.

Big 3 are;

- The Emblem problem
- The Olympics Main Stadium problem
- Tokyo Governor problem



First, I'll catch up the emblem problem.

24th July 2015
The Emblems were decided.

It was announced that the emblems created a designer Kenjiro Sano were adopted.

 (from: www.sankei.com)

Those didn't had a very good reputation To be honest, I was very disappointed.

July - August 2015
Plagiarism Suspicion arose.

People started to say the emblem was similar to the logo of the Liege theater in Belgium designed by Olivier Debie.

(from: http://bylines.news.yahoo.co.jp)

I'm not sure if those are similar or not.

Mr. Debie filed a lawsuit, but Mr. Sano claimed that he never plagiarized it.
The JOC and the TOCOG expressed using the emblems, but Sano's other plagiarisms were brought to light.

After twists and turns,,,,,

1st September 2015
The emblems were "SCRAPPED".

24th November 2015
The TOCOG started soliciting the design of an emblem.

8th April 2016
4 Final Candidates were presented.

(from: http://mainichi.jp)

I personally liked the one in the bottom left.

25th April 2016
The emblem was decided with a lot of booing among people.

(from: https://tokyo2020.jp)

This emblem was not popular at all when medias and such conducted surveys.
It was said that the selection process for the first time was very closed and opaque.
So the TOCOG announced that they would conduct the process more openly this time.
However, it end up being a "BLACK BOX."
This kind of Japan's nature never changes, especially among public organizations.

Long time no see!

I'd been away for quite a long time.
In the meantime, the Rio Olympics has started!!

Many stormy things regarding the Tokyo Olympics have happened since I put the last article here.

I'll catch up them first, and then write articles about the Rio Olympics.