The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games(Tokyo 2020) today launched the "One Team Project", an initiative in which Japan’s leading creators,innovators and performers in a wide range of fields are being invited to express their own interpretations of the vision for the Tokyo 2020 Games. Building on the three core concepts of the Games – "Achieving Personal Best", "Unity in Diversity" and "Connecting to Tomorrow" – these influential figures will be encouraging the public to reach out to one another and unite behind the
Games’ vision.
In support of this latest initiative, Tokyo 2020 today also launched a webpage dedicated to the project where participating celebrities can share their messages with the public. Dressed in formal kabuki attire, actor Ebizo Ichikawa XI offered a recorded kabuki-style salutation on the website, emphasizingthat the Olympic and Paralympic Games are a great opportunity for artists and individuals to reflect upon their identities and share their thoughts with the world.
Ichikawa commented, "As well as being the world’s biggest sport spectacle, the Tokyo 2020 Games will also be a major festival of culture.
This is a wonderful chance for Japanese people to rediscover their identity, and a golden opportunity to showcase the attractions of Japan to the world. That is why it is important that we all pool our collective strengths – athletes as well as non-athletes, the young and the old. Let us all embrace each other’s differences, sing the praises of diversity, respect one another as we are, and join our hearts together as one. It is vital that we come together as One Team in the lead-up to the year 2020."
A number of other Japanese artists and intellectuals have volunteered to become a part of the OneTeam. They include Kyogen actor Mansai Nomura, karate practitioner Kiyou Shimizu, musician Yoshiki, Nobel Prize-winning researcher Shinya Yamanaka, writer Mariko Hayashi, and comedian & writer Naoki Matayoshi.
Ebizo Ichikawa XI’s video message: https://youtu.be/jtf5tm9i2gQ
*English subtitle is available in the video
One Team Project webpage: https://participation.tokyo2020.jp/jp/oneteam/
*Currently available in Japanese only
For more information, please contact:
Tatsuo OGURA
Email: tatsuo.ogura@tokyo2020.jp
Tristan LAVIER
Email: tristan.lavier@tokyo2020.jp
Junichi SATO
Email: junichi.sato@tokyo2020.jp
Kaho AKIYAMA
Email: kaho.akiyama@tokyo2020.jp
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