Speed Dating for Olympic Hosting Opportunities

(ATR) Katsushika wants the world to know it has world class sports facilities and a chance to take part in the 2020 Olympics spirit.

The northeast special ward, which refers to itself as a city, is in the Tokyo metropolitan area and is home to just under 450,000 people. The area was only incorporated into Tokyo city in 1932 and is located on the metropolis’ periphery.

Venues for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are located in the city’s bay area and western area of the 23 special wards that make up the populous core of Tokyo prefecture. It is unlikely that Olympic visitors or athletes would make their way to the ward during the Games.

Katsushika officials, however, are trying to change that.

Landing a National Olympic Committee to hold a pre-Olympics training camp or partnership would be a dream for the "very nice town with ordinary people," Noriko Ogata said to Around the Rings.

Ogata is chief of Katsushika’s Olympic and Paralympic division and helped run an advertising booth during the 2018 Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly. Katsushika was one of many Japanese municipalities setting up booths on the sidelines of the ANOC assembly hoping to speak with NOCs about Olympic plans.

Cities as large as Nagoya and Sapporo were represented, as well as far-flung prefectures such as Okinawa, an archipelago of islands located 400 miles south of Japan.

At least 30 different NOCs had visited the Katsushika booth midway through the first day of the assembly, Ogata said. The goal of the city is to make connections and continue discussions and hopefully persuade a country to send its athletes to Katsushika for final training periods before Tokyo 2020.

Ogata said that the Olympic Village is only 25 minutes by train from Katsushika, and the city would provide specialized transportation for a country sending its athletes.

"We would like to let the Katsushika people feel the Olympics closer to them," Ogata said through an interpreter. "We would like the [worldwide] recognition from all over the world for [being a] hosting town."

Bringing Olympics to All of Japan

To date 341 cities across Japan have signed up to be a "host town" for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

A national government program, the initiative works to connect countries with towns across Japan for cultural and sporting exchanges. So far, all 47 Japanese prefectures have been represented in the program, with different cities playing different roles for Olympic teams.

Cities can offer to host athletes before the Games while training, or just for a cultural exchange. Some "host towns" will receive athletes after the Olympics or welcome travelling Olympic fans.

Many countries have signed up multiple cities as part of the arrangement, allowing different teams to train in different areas of Japan.

Cooperation extends outside sports with athletes meeting local children, and foreign governments holding cultural events. The goal of the program is to leave a legacy of broadening the horizons of the Japanese people by bringing foreign visitors to lesser known cities across the country.

Large cities with sports facilities can feel connected to the Olympics without hosting events directly tied to the Games. Tiny villages have taken the opportunity to register with the national government.

Mishima, a village in Kagoshima Prefecture on the southern tip of the island of Kyushu, has a population of only 370 people. Regardless, it has signed an agreement with the country of Guinea, which will send its delegation after the Olympics.

"We are helping by directly connecting a foreign country and local government using sports," Jun Mitarai, Director of the Secretariat of the Headquarters for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, said to ATR.

"We hope the exchanges last long beyond 2020, so a lot of people come to the towns from the foreign countries so the citizens then go to foreign countries and the exchange lasts long.

"Children [in small towns] have never seen foreign people, but can talk to foreigners who are attending the Olympics and Paralympics. It is an amazing thing for kids, and this is a very good education for people. Paralympians who come can make a legacy of barrier-free [inclusion] for cities."

Friendship and economic revitalization in smaller townships remains the goal of the program, and Mitarai was bullish on as many countries as possible buying into the program following the assembly.

Sometimes it is Olympic officials initiating the process of finding a "host town," but other exchanges can be negotiated by a country’s embassy in Japan or foreign local government officials. The nature of the exchange is up to the discretion of what the country’s "needs" are, Mitarai said.

Larger cities such as Yokohama and Kobe have taken the lead in finding teams and countries without any assistance, but Mitarai says his office is ready to help any smaller city pair up with Olympians.

Trying to Reach all NOCs

So far 107 countries have signed up to take part in the "host town" initiative says the Japanese government. With 206 registered NOCs that leaves plenty of countries and Olympic teams yet to be paired either pre- or post-Games.

Even prefectures that have signed up multiple countries to host still believe they can impress undecided countries with facilities and other attention.

Ishikawa, a rural prefecture on the western side of Japan, is set to host pre-Games camps for five countries during the Olympics and Paralympics, but officials were looking to add to its roster during the assembly. During the assembly 20-30 other countries expressed interest in the facilities the prefecture has to offer.

"I personally believe by hosting a country and other countries in Ishikawa that will give extraordinary power and dreams to local children," Yuta Koshizaka, an official in the sports promotion division of the Prefectural government, told ATR.

"We need to talk about it with some countries because requests differ from country to country. Some countries and athletes want to concentrate on training themselves, but others would like to have opportunity to feel relaxed."

Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, points out that it has a full 2000m Olympic rowing course to help its case. Local officials at the booth were happy to pass out promotional materials to anyone walking by.

As of June the prefecture had signed agreements with six countries and the Oceania region to hold pre-Games training camps.

The group’s efforts at ANOC have already paid off. Prefecture officials will stage a ceremony in Ibaraki with Belgian officials in the coming days to show off a newly signed hosting agreement.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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