Reuters (August 1)
“As competitors battled for the podium on the third day of Olympic athletics on Sunday, it was Tokyo’s oppressive heat that perhaps dished out the most pain. Punishing conditions greeted athletes and officials as a trackside thermometer touched 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) and the humidity hovered around 60%, with sun beating down on an Olympic Stadium devoid of spectators due to COVID-19.”
Tags: 40 degrees Celsius, Athletes, Battled, Competitors, Conditions, COVID-19, Heat, Humidity, Officials, Olympics, Oppressive, Pain, Podium, Punishing, Spectators, Sun, Tokyo, Trackside
Washington Post (July 24)
“The cauldron is lit in Tokyo’s covid Olympics. Let’s hope it’s not a fuse.” Frankly, the IOC only has in place a “haphazard collection of rules.” The IOC president “is lying to 11,000 international athletes with differing immune status and levels of exposure who are gathered unsafely amid a pandemic.” There is no bubble. “The only bubble at the Tokyo Games is the spit bubble coming out of Thomas Bach’s mouth.”
Tags: Athletes, Bach, Bubble, Cauldron, Covid Olympics, Exposure, Fuse, Haphazard, Immune status, IOC, Lying, Pandemic, Tokyo, Tokyo Games, Unsafely
Washington Post (July 9)
“Tokyo’s newly rebuilt, 68,000-capacity National Stadium… will be empty throughout the Games, symbolizing the vast sums of money invested in these Olympics with little reward for the people of Japan or the country’s economy.” The spectator ban “highlights the government’s failure to get its vaccination program underway early enough to allow the Games to take place safely with fans.”
Tags: Economy, Empty, Failure, Government, Japan, Money, National Stadium, Olympics, Reward, Spectator ban, Tokyo, Vaccination program
Washington Post (June 25)
The “Tokyo Olympics just got an important no-confidence vote—from Japan’s emperor.”
Washington Post (June 11)
“There will be joy and drama, glory and grief, among Olympic competitors. But this summer’s pandemic-era Games in Tokyo are destined to go down as the most joyless of modern times with athletes sequestered and cheering banned…. Instead of basking in anticipation of the Opening Ceremonies on July 23, the buildup to the Games sees Japan mired in blame, recriminations and laments that it didn’t have to be this way.”
Tags: Athletes, Banned, Blame, Cheering, Competitors, Drama, Glory, Grief, Japan, Joyless, Mired, Olympic, Opening Ceremonies, Pandemic, Recriminations, Sequestered, Tokyo
New York Times (November 20)
“Nine months after the I.O.C. and organizers in Tokyo agreed to postpone the 2020 Summer Games for one year, the level of uncertainty surrounding the event has barely waned, even as hopes for a successful Olympics have never been higher.”
Tags: 2020 Summer Games, I.O.C., Olympics, Postpone, Successful, Tokyo, Uncertainty
Washington Post (September 30)
Few nations “have been upended like Japan” by the coronavirus. “Working from home was almost unthinkable before the pandemic but now appears to be gathering some momentum.” Pasona is even moving its headquarters from Tokyo to Awaji Island. “It’s a revolutionary idea in Japan’s rigid corporate culture—and a sign of how the coronavirus pandemic is reimagining where and how people work worldwide.”
Tags: Awaji, Coronavirus, Corporate culture, Headquarters, Home, Japan, Pandemic, Pasona, Revolutionary, Rigid, Tokyo, Upended, Work
Financial Times (September 11)
“To global portfolio managers, the Tokyo stock market has spent the past few years looking ever more like an old curiosity shop. Everyone knows there are bargains galore in there but who can be bothered to study the cluttered and poorly labelled shelves.” Perhaps Warren Buffett will finally show money managers the way into “overlooked Japan.”
Tags: Bargains, Bothered, Buffett, Cluttered, Curiosity shop, Global, Money managers, Overlooked Japan, Portfolio managers, Stock market, Tokyo
Nikkei Asian Review (August 3)
In “a sign that Seoul is ready to rival Tokyo on the international stage,” the New York Times decided “to move Asia-based digital news operations from Hong Kong to Seoul.” The Times considered Tokyo and other cities, but ultimately chose Seoul, “which has become an outward-looking and tech-savvy city.”
Tags: Digital news, Hong Kong, New York Times, Outward-looking, Rival, Seoul, Tech-savvy, Tokyo
LA Times (June 23)
“Los Angeles County health officials reported 2,571 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the third day in the last week that the county has reported more than 2,000 infections.” Authorities suspect a link to mass protests. In addition, the county’s death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 3,137. By comparison, the combined total for all 47of Japan’s prefectures is less than 1,000, and Tokyo prefecture, with a population roughly 4 million greater than LA county, has logged 321 deaths.
Tags: COVID-19, Deaths, Infections, Japan, Los Angeles, Mass protests, New cases, Tokyo, U.S.
