January 6, 2014

Akahata editorial (excerpt)

This year, Tokyo will begin preparations for hosting the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. The organizing committee for the 2020 Summer Games will be launched next month. The national government included Olympics-related expenditures in the FY 2014 budget. However, Tokyo Governor Inose Naoki resigned last month due to his money scandal, and the gubernatorial election will take place in February. With the aim of contributing to people’s interests and promoting sports, preparation work for the Olympic Games should be fairly conducted with transparency.

Former president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations Utsunomiya Kenji, who announced his candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial race, said that he will push for a compact Olympics and host the Games as a festival of peace and friendship by establishing a Tokyo government which fully complies with the Constitution and its principle promoting peace. This is the direction that Tokyo should take.

In 1964, the first Olympic Games in Asia took place in Tokyo. At that time, a series of money scandals occurred due to cozy ties between politicians and business enterprises who were trying to benefit from a bloated Olympic Games hosting budget. The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was a “hotbed of corruption”.

Keeping in mind this bitter experience, this time, we should bear in mind the mottos, “people first” and “players first”, right from the beginning of the preparations.