Raw Japan
Slices of Japanese business, politics and life
Small is beautiful
It’s been over two weeks since the final puck was walloped and the last skin-tight lycra suit was hung up at the Vancouver Olympics.
And while Japan’s poor performance still rankles, the passage of time has given me the chance to find some bright spots in the country’s measly haul of three silver and two bronze medals.
Not least of which is the role played by small Japanese companies in supporting our athletes at a time when corporate behemoths, such as carmaker Nissan Motor and Seibu Holdings, an operator of hotel chains and train systems, have severed ties with teams including baseball and ice hockey squads.
Two of the three women in the team that won silver in the ladies’ pursuit speed skating belong to a skating club formed by tiny surveyor Daichi Corp in Toyama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo.
Daichi, which employs only 40 people and posted $11 million in sales in the last financial year, spends about $220,000 annually on its skaters. Its president and its founder even took a pay cut to make more funds available for the club, a company spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, Keiichiro Nagashima and Joji Kato, who won silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men’s 500m speed skating, are members of a team at Nidec Sankyo, a maker of ATM card readers.
Half-pipe dream up in smoke for Japan bad boy
Inclement weather has plagued the snowboard venue at the Olympics, but the storm clouds over Japan’s Kazuhiro Kokubo nearly prevented him from competing in Vancouver.
Ending eighth in the snowboard half-pipe finals with an apparent bloodied chin and lip, Kokubo is also unlikely to have felt the last of a public bruising in Japan that began when some people thought he was scruffily dressed for his departure from Narita Airport and continued when he later seemed unrepentant.
Kokubo, whose unusual surname translates as “mother country”, was banned from the opening ceremonies in Canada and nearly disqualified by the team for his fashion mis-statement.
But in a scene reminiscent of a student-principal meeting, he and team captain Seiko Hashimoto agreed after an apology to let the nail stick out — at least through the half-pipe event — rather than facing the hammer.
Before Kokubo finally took to his board, the 21-year-old Tokai University student with dreadlocks and nose piercings had been the topic du jour for many TV talk shows and sports programmes as a poster-child of inscrutable youth.
In a nation that broadcasts its curling live and awaits the men’s figure skating finals with baited breath, the snowboarder tempest dominated sports media until Japan’s first two medals, for speed-skating, offered a reprieve.
Tokyo lights go out
Tokyo’s failure to win the 2016 Olympic bid triggered bemused shrugs and a rush for the exits at Tokyo Tower when the result was announced well past midnight on Saturday morning. In truth, no one at the bid party in the Tower seemed to really expect Tokyo to win.
Drummers drummed, cheerleaders rustled pom-poms and a seeming endless string of noisy TV celebrities took turns at the microphone to drum up some Olympic fever among the 400-plus partygoers.
But Tokyo officials had hardly splashed out and the event quickly descended into farce. There was no champagne on ice, just beer.
Odds-on favourite Chicago’s early elimination drew gasps, certainly bigger than those when Tokyo went out moments later in the second round, when confusion reigned supreme.
“Are we in or out? Out? Oh, well,” was the typical reaction of those gathered.
A delay between Tokyo’s name being erased from the electronic board at the IOC vote in Copenhagen and it flashing on the TV screen in Japanese amplified the sense of anti-climax.
Within minutes the television screens were switched off, Japanese media had gone and volunteers were packing up tables and chairs, apologetically handing out the last of the free beer to those of us left wondering where we would be able to see the rest of the vote –- the most important bit!
It was so sad that Tokyo didn’t win. I was hoping that I will watch Olympics for the first time without goin’ anywhere far. Since the lost ,I don’t want to hear anything about Olympics…yet…
Apocalypse Edo, 2016
After watching Tokyo’s bid for the 2016 Olympics, and not always holding my tongue at the ancient city of Edo’s quest, the moment of futility in the 18-month, $50 million campaign became apparent after this headline: Olympics-2016 Games could be the last, says Tokyo governor.
Imagine the PR team behind always quotable Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, as the Japanese bid fell behind in the race according to bookmakers, suggesting he make one last plea to the IOC: With global demise coming, Tokyo deserves a final shot at Olympic hurrah.
“It sounds dark, but if we get Godzilla and Gamera behind the bid, say rising from Tokyo Bay and soaring over city hall in team colours, it just might work. ”
“Think global warming and disaster not in Celcius, but in IOC votes.”
The governor, an actor and author before his long political career, could then yoke metropolitan oversight with a touch of B-movie dialogue, intended to show global consciousness but instead underscoring the opposite.
Oh, he did that already.
Countdown to 2016 Gold
The delegations and heads of state are gathering in Copenhagen with less than one week to go until the International Olympic Committee’s decision on which city will host the 2016 Games.
Billions of dollars in investment and national pride are at stake. Oddsmakers are pegging a close race ahead of the Oct. 2 vote, and we are adding a new question to our poll on candidate cities (included below).
The 2016 Gold
Less than a month until the International Olympic Committee’s selection of the winning city in the 2016 Olympic bid campaign, and the IOC in a report Wednesday has the candidates in a dead heat.
All bid cities — Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo — will make a push before the Oct. 2 decision in Copenhagen, with billions of dollars in investment and national prestige at stake.
PARABÉNS BRASIL…ESTA FOI A MELHOR ESCOLHA
from Left field:
Boyz II Men risk a Barack-ing over Tokyo Olympic support
Ask not what you can do for your country ... ask its direct competitor if it wants any help with its Olympic bid.
Tokyo's 2016 campaign has been short on glamour backers and is struggling to match Chicago's trump card, American President Barack Obama - until now.
Boyz II Men, who sang at the closing ceremony at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, are hardly the hippest band in the world or likely to tip the vote, but the Grammy-winning trio publically supporting Tokyo at the weekend was an image boost of sorts, however bizarre.
Among their reasons were Tokyo's "coziness" and their belief Tokyo should win because the Japanese "really love the Olympics". They must have missed the memo on Tokyo's public support lagging behind rivals Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, but moving along ...
Among other nuggets of wisdom, Chicago's bid is apparently "too business-related". Perhaps Obama should put them straight on that point.
Did I mention them being American and supporting Tokyo was weird? I think I may have done.
PHOTO: Members of Boyz II Men arrive for the Black Eyed Peas Peapod Foundation Benefit Concert at the Conga Room at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, California, February 5, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Redmond
