Tokyo 2020 and Beyond: Legacies from Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games

Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the greatest media spectacle of modernity, Tokyo will be at the center of the world’s attention in summer 2020. The nearly universal reach via television and internet broadcast provides the IOC with multi-billion dollar revenue streams and the host with opportunities for placing highly visible messages about the state of the nation and its future to the world. Japan’s bidding proposal ‘Discover Tomorrow’ outlines the official message of Japan as generous host, reliable organizer, and capable agent of tackling 21st century challenges by means of craftsmanship, creativity, and advanced technology. Turning the host city into the Olympic City, however, comes with a lofty price tag, and hardly any of the major stepping stones within the years-long process are likely to go uncontested. Who carries the costs and who is benefiting from the expenditure, what are topics of concern for promotors and critics alike, what will Japan be like in the years to come, are some of the crucial issues warranting public debate and scholarly exchange. With less than two years ahead of the Games, the DIJ roundtable features three leading experts on sport mega-events to discuss the political economy of hosting the Olympic Games, the difficulties of message control in the post-factual age, and the legacies of the Games for Japan in the 2020s.