Japan in the Olympics,the Olympics in Japan.OLYMPICS information 2020

                  JAPAN OLYMPICS

The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, although a few years to go, has a website that provides the latest news on every conceivable aspect of the upcoming event — from the infrastructural changes Tokyo is currently experiencing to the latest corporate sponsors. The site also presents the “vision” of the 2020 Games, which includes “passing on the legacy of the future.” The organizers say that the “Tokyo Games of 1964 completely transformed Japan, improved Japanese awareness of the outside world, and helped to grow the Japanese economy faster. The 2020 Games will make Japan, now a vibrant economy, promote future changes around the world and leave a lasting legacy for future generations. ” put the power of the Olympics to inspire positive change in Japan and the world.

Many readers may be aware that the 2020 Games will be the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, after the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics, and the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. Few will see that Japan has tried to host the Olympic Games twelve times, winning the bid five times counting the 1940 Games which were canceled due to World War II. This means that Japan has been inviting, bidding, organizing, or hosting the Olympic Games almost as often as the 1930s.2

Thanks to the global visibility of the Olympics, the great economic impact, and the perceived ability to change national identity, the event continues to be the most controversial 120 years after its resurgence as a modern event in Athens. The specific reasons for Japan's continued interest in hosting the event are many and closely related to the changing role of the archipelago in international and regional political arenas. In the following article, I trace the history of Japan's involvement in the Olympic struggle and suggest why the nation has donated so much resources to it for more than a century. In addition to students ’interest in sports themselves, it is important to understand both the importance of Olympic history and its potential and (or lack of) use as a catalyst for change in the future.One of the key figures in the development of physical education in Japanese schools was Kanō Jigorō. Kanō, a professor and principal at Tokyo University of Education (later Tsukuba University), also worked in the Department of Education. He is best known as the founder of the jūdō game, a form of unarmed combat that combines elements of samurai jūjutsu with tactics aimed at bringing traditional martial arts to the forefront.4 Indeed, Kanō was more concerned with making Japan modern by emphasizing body culture, a practice common in Europe at the time. The belief was that physical education strengthened the human body and human behavior. He felt that the standards and lessons learned from modern sports, including not only jūdō, but also swimming, running, tennis, and soccer, could be applied to the daily life of Japanese citizens.5Meiji Era (1868-1912) are slogans such as "fukoku kyōhei" ("advise the nation, strengthen the soldiers"), "wakon yōsai" ("Japanese spirit, Western technology"), and "bunmei kaika" ("civilization and enlightenment" ) reflects Japan's interest in being seen as a global development — a passion driven by the desire to fight Western threats in Japan. Education became an important tool for the Meiji government in achieving these national goals, and this included, for the first time, compulsory primary education. The government believed that without the illiteracy and enlightenment of the people, Japan would not be recognized worldwide. As part of the educational revolution, Western-style physical education was officially required of the primary education system for both boys and girls for the first time in 1905.3

Pierre de Coubertin, the French founder of the modern Olympic organization and President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) while Kanō was speaking on sports in Japan, also believed in athletics in order to improve society. Since 1896 the revival of modern sports, Coubertin has tried to recruit foreign countries from Europe and the United States to participate in the Olympics, but no Asian nation has responded. During the preparation for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Coubertin, in his quest to make the Olympics a global one, asked the French ambassador to Tokyo to identify a possible Japanese IOC member. By the early twentieth century, Kanō Jigorō was well-known for his prominent role in sports development in the Department of Education. Kanō was also a zealous advocate for the formerly divided Japanese nation, having invited more than 7,000 foreign students to study at his university since 1896.6 In 1909, Kanō became Japan's first official IOC member from Japan — and the first in Asia . to join an organization made up of only European and American members. In 1910, the IOC officially invited Japan to participate in the Fifth Olympiad, which was scheduled to take place in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1912.7

Baron Pierre de CoubertinKanō helped select two male athletes to represent Japan at the Stockholm Olympics, an athlete and long-distance runner, but found it difficult to finance their trip from Japan to Sweden. Few Japanese have viewed the Olympics, which are still in its infancy, as politically or strategically important to legitimize Japanese participation. The Department of Education did not comply with Kanō's request for a scholarship. Undeterred, Kanō created his own organization, the Dai Nippon Taiiku Ky