The Curse of Festival Doctrine

The Curse of Festival Doctrine Yoshimi Shunya (bio) Translated by Reid Bartholomew and Yisheng Tang The Most Unpopular Olympics in History With its conclusion, the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games (referred to hereafter as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics) quickly grew distant from the concerns of the Japanese people. Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide's announcement of his decision to resign, made almost in tandem with the closing of the Paralympic Games, shifted people's attention immediately to the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party so that hardly a trace of the Olympics remained in their minds. From the chaos that began with the successful bid to host the Olympics, followed by numerous scandals surrounding the Japan National Stadium and the Olympic emblem, to the weakening of Suga's administration in the midst of the unresolvable conflict between preventing the spread of COVID-19 and hosting the Olympics—this was the end result of the Tokyo Olympics. Perhaps with the aim of forgetting the unfortunate "festival" that had ended in failure as soon as possible, in the month following the conclusion of the Olympics the Japanese media, public opinion, and politicians appeared to plot the scenario of a "regicide," indulging themselves in the "festival" of selecting a new "king." Although the Olympics and the World Expo have functioned throughout history as "festivals" to help people forget the political challenges they face, this time the "festival" itself was ostensibly flawed, and Japan had to evoke the dramaturgy of turning "politics" into a "festival." This time, the weakened king, namely Prime Minister Suga, instead of dissolving the parliament before the general election—and struggling in a final battle—chose to die by his own hand, in other words resign, rather than being "killed" by others. After that, the "faire la fête" of the presidential election of the Democratic Party became a flashy performance that monopolized everyone's fascination. In fact, the unpopularity of the Tokyo Olympics among the Japanese stands out. At the end of March 2020, despite the decision to postpone the Olympics, public support [End Page 15] for holding them the following year declined as the pandemic spread and reached its lowest point at the beginning of 2021. According to various surveys, the percentage of people who believed that the Olympics should take place decreased to 20%, and about 80% of Japanese answered that the Olympics should either be further postponed or canceled. From February 2021, the support rate slightly increased, and the population was therefore roughly divided, equally, into three opposing camps (the "hosting" camp, the "postponing" camp, and the "canceling" camp). In other words, public opinion was completely divided on the issue of whether or not the Olympics should be hosted right away, canceled, or postponed. For example, according to a national telephone survey conducted by Kyodo News in January 2021, 35.3% answered that the Olympics should be canceled and 44.8% said that it should be further postponed: in total 80.1% were against holding the Olympics in the summer of 2021. This public opinion largely remained the same, according to the same survey in March: 23.2% answered that the Olympics should take place in the summer, 33.8% answered that it should be further postponed, and 39.8% answered that it should be canceled. In other words, throughout the first half of 2021, about 70% of Japanese citizens were of the opinion that the Tokyo Olympics should not be held that summer. Media around the world was shocked by the various surveys conducted from the end of 2020 through 2021, in which Japanese public opinion responded negatively to hosting the Olympics. For example, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) stated, "What a decline of support compared to the enthusiastic Olympics of 1964. The Tokyo Olympics 57 years ago symbolized Japan's resurrection from the ashes of the Second World War. How vastly different from the Olympics that were postponed to this July, presenting an ironic contrast." Moreover, on March 20 the Japan Press Research Institute published the results of a survey conducted in the United States, France, China, Korea, and Thailand regarding citizens' opinions on whether the Tokyo Olympics should still take place during the...

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.