Article

Abstract

Japan has played a significant and pioneering role in the Olympic Movement for well over a century. Not only was it the first nation outside of Europe and North America to have a member on the International Olympic Committee, to send athletes to the Games, and to host both Summer and Winter Olympics, but it also played an important role in the so-called “greening” of the Olympic Games. From its planning to host the ultimately-cancelled 1940 Olympics to its hosting of the ultimately-postponed 2020 Olympics, Tokyo has been at the center of Japan’s complex and massive Olympic infrastructure projects. The economic and environmental costs of these projects have drawn increasing scrutiny over the past century, and this scrutiny has helped shape present-day attitudes towards large-scale sports development projects. This article looks at Olympic-related projects in Japan, with a focus on Tokyo, over the past century and connects these projects to contemporary debates over sports development projects in the world’s largest city – a city with precious little green space that is acutely feeling the effects of climate change. I argue that debates and discourse surrounding Tokyo 2020 highlighted a decline in the Japanese public’s eagerness over massive sports development projects, and the first-ever Olympic postponement offered a unique and prolonged opportunity to reflect on the many costs of hosting the event. While the focus of this paper is Japan, the questions it raises about the increasingly tense relationship between the Olympics and the natural environment are universal.