Olympics have a way of benchmarking a country's development. In 1964, the country worked at a feverish pace to build the elevated highways, five-star hotels, and bullet train system that we today associate with modern Tokyo.
The entire population focused on putting their best foot forward to host the world. There undeniably will be the same sense of purpose for 2020. If March 2011 marked the country and people's lowest point after the devastation of the tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, the opening ceremony of the 2020 Games will be the country's calling to show its full recovery to itself and to the world. That is what Olympics do. They compel countries to fulfill not just their athletic potential, but also their national aspirations in the compressed time period it takes to prepare for the games. In the countdown to 2020, there will be many questions about whether Japan will be prepared to host the spectacle that the Olympics have become. After all, they are not planning to spend the $40 billion that the Chinese spent in 2008 to host in Beijing. The same questions abounded in 1964, but Japanese meticulousness answered them all. Every stadium was operating. Every signboard was painted. Every piece of scaffolding was removed. Even a wholesale refitting of every hotel with imported bed frames to accommodate Western-sized bodies was completed on schedule (Japanese bed makers did not produce the larger size). The bigger question is whether Japan as a nation will be ready. Will so-called "Abenomics," which has created growth thus far through monetary easing, have successfully laid the groundwork for the structural and regulatory reforms essential to put the economy on a healthy footing? Will the radiation leakages at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear complex have been permanently stopped? Will tensions with China over historical and territorial issues have inflamed further or been resolved peacefully? Will Japanese society have accepted the need to remedy its labor shortage with integration of women and immigrants in the workforce?
Source:NewsOnJapan
