Summer of Fun for Two Years to Tokyo

(ATR) Tokyo 2020 organizers kick off what they envision to be a summer of engagement for the Games.

The Tokyo 2020 mascots were named and appeared in public for the first time on Sunday, two days before the two year mark to the Games. On Tuesday, Tokyo will display 731 commemorative lanterns at the Tokyo Sky Tree Town to commemorate the number of days left until the Olympics. The lanterns will feature in a parade of Olympians before counting down to the time when the 2020 Opening Ceremony will begin.

A number of dignitaries including Tokyo Municipal Governor Yuriko Koike, Organizing Committee President Yoshiro Mori, Olympics minister Shunichi Suzuki, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will attend the event.

"One of the unique initiatives [is] that we consider the two years to go not as a date event, we consider this as a whole summer engagement period," Masa Takaya, Tokyo 2020 spokesperson told Around the Rings, about the two years to go celebrations.

"The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is hosting commemorative events on the two years to go dates on July 24 and August 25, but other partners, municipalities are joining the celebration so people will be able to take part in this celebration period in their hometowns or everywhere in [Tokyo] during the whole summer."

Mascots Named

Starting the festivities was a public presentation of the Olympic and Paralympic mascots.

School children around Japan voted for one of three sets of mascots earlier this year as part of a public engagement strategy for the mascots. The winning pair received more than 100,000 votes. Their designer Ryo Taniguchi was on hand to visit the unveiled mascots.

In a country known for its mascot craze, the names were chosen by a selection committee to avoid issues that plagued the logo launch. The original Tokyo 2020 logo was scrapped and a new one commissioned after plagiarism charges were raised by a Belgian theater. The mascots design features the checkered pattern of the new logos.

The Olympic mascot is named Miraitowa (ミライトワ), which is a combination of the Japanese words for "future" and "eternity".

The Paralympic mascot is named Someity (ソメイティ), after the cherry blossom Someiyoshino. Someity is also meant to echo the English phrase "so mighty".

"[Our mascots are] of the great examples of how we are able to reach out these Olympic and Paralympic values to the new generations," Takaya said before the launch.

Maintaining Olympic Enthusiasm

Five years after winning the right to organize the 2020 Olympics, organizers say enthusiasm is still high in the Japanese capital.

"You know the Japanese people are I would say the most passionate citizens towards sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the world," Takaya said about Olympic fatigue. "Straight after Rio 2016 we hosted the Rio 2016 medalist parade gathering all medalists from the Olympic and Paralympic Games and we observed more than 800,000 people along the streets during the daytime even on a weekday."

Takaya said that most of the 50 different domestic and international sponsors have begun marketing programs aimed at promoting the Olympics. The volume of promotions keeps the Tokyo 2020 logo present, and "constantly increasing" people’s expectations about the Games.

Koike has been an ever-present part of the Games since winning election one month before the 2016 Olympics in Rio. As the IOC Coordination Commission checked in on preparations earlier this month, she was confident that rising costs had been stabilized, and that passion would return to the Olympics.

"I recognize that it is about time that we should energize the passion of Olympics," Koike said to ATR earlier this month.

She said that planning the torch relay and outlining its route will lay the groundwork for spreading this passion. The Tokyo 2020 torch relay preliminary route has been determined, and will start in Fukushima, one of the three prefectures affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Opening matches for the baseball and softball tournaments will also be held in Fukushima. Tokyo 2020 will host an executive board meeting on July 30 in Fukushima and tour local sport venues.

Still, a small, vocal anti-Olympics organization continues to hold protests around Tokyo showing that not all citizens are on board with the Games. The latest demonstration took place after the mascot launch where 50 Tokyoites marched through Shibuya and Harajuku protesting forced evictions from the Games.

今日は「2020東京オリンピックいらない！ まだ間に合う、返上しよう！ 原宿アピール＆渋谷デモ」へ。移転問題で疑惑のある岸記念体育館、「五輪大本営報道」をしているNHKなど「問題の施設」を経由し、宇田川町、スクランブル交差点を通って、神宮通公園まで。山積する五輪問題をアピール。 pic.twitter.com/f3PhzGVgPK

Another concern is the lack of volunteering culture in Japan, and lack of enthusiasm to recruit volunteers for Tokyo 2020. A June poll by NHK showed that over 80 percent of people, when asked, said they would not volunteer for the Olympics.

Koike told ATR that Tokyo will easily fill the 30,000 volunteer positions needed for the Tokyo marathon this year, and "these people can be [Olympics] volunteers" in 2020. Today, the 2019 Rugby World Cup announced that it received 38,000 applicants for 10,000 volunteer positions during the tournament next year.

Weather Concerns

The enthusiasm of the Japanese people for Tokyo 2020 may be the second hottest thing in the city, outside of Tokyo’s actual weather.

A record heat wave continues to plague Japan, with temperatures reaching more than 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) in Kumagaya, a suburb of Tokyo. At least 44 people have reportedly died due to the heat, reigniting fears that athletes and spectators could be harmed by similar weather during the Games.

"[Japan is] not the first country to host the Games in extreme heat," John Coates, chair of the IOC Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission, told journalists following the group’s last meeting in Tokyo. "It is a natural consequence of [the Games] being in July/August.

"It is important that there will be shade for spectators as they lineup to go through security areas, and I’ve seen some planning of large fans, water sprays we have to make sure there is medical attention available. The spectators as well as the athletes we have to take care of and help prepare them."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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