Policy Alert #234 | August 11, 2021
Despite the protests and criticisms before the event,[1] the Tokyo Olympics overcame the threat of the raging Delta variant and came to a nuanced end on August 8.[2] While Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga thanked the Japanese people’s understanding and cooperation to “fulfill our responsibility as the host nation,”[3] Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the country’s only gold medal winner[4] as the Olympic games concluded with relative success in maintaining the “Olympic bubble.”[5]
Among the Rising Powers, China walked away with the most medals at 88, ranking at second place behind the United States. Japan exceeds its own record at 58 medals in total. Despite having limited participation[6] while competing under the disguise of ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) as a consequence of the doping scandal, Russia was able to grab 70 medals. Meanwhile, India had its best ever Olympics games with 7 medals in total.
In this Policy Alert, we examine what conclusions Rising Powers are drawing from the widely scrutinized Tokyo Olympics.
Japan
An editorial from the liberal Asahi Shimbun calls for a full accounting of the government’s missteps throughout Olympics:
- “A number of questions and concerns have since been raised, such as suspected bribery related to the Olympic bid and a breakdown of the expenses for the Games that only kept swelling… The same can be said of measures to contain COVID-19 cases centered on tests and isolation… The organizing committee has an obligation to present concrete data for sharing challenges and lessons with others, albeit somewhat belatedly, before the other nations of the world.”[7]
In an op-ed for the business-focused Nikkei Asia, William Pesek, a Tokyo-based journalist and author of Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan’s Lost Decades, argues that the Suga administration needs to pay more attention to domestic issues as the October election approaches:
- “Were it not for the complete disarray of Japan’s opposition, Suga and his Liberal Democratic Party would almost certainly be the fourth post-Games political casualty… Now, as Suga’s government pivots to Taiwan, it is hard not to worry that there is no real domestic agenda… the LDP ought to know that real strength begins at home with a vibrant economy. Putting more naval vessels in the South China Sea matters less than Japan Inc. wowing the globe with new technologies and game-changing unicorns.”[8]
China
An editorial from the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post applauds Tokyo’s effort to organize the Olympic games while navigating against the ongoing threat of COVID:
- “Tokyo has all but pulled off an unlikely triumph. It seems to have confounded the worst fears of an outbreak, although we do not know for sure yet as athletes return home…These Games set the gold standard for organising mega events in unprecedented difficult circumstances. China, host of next year’s Winter Olympics, has much to reflect on.”[9]
An editorial from the nationalist tabloid Global Times attributes China’s success in the Olympics to the country’s recent reforms in state-led institutions while linking a country’s medal count to its level of modernization:
- “China’s new type of whole nation system has proven its vitality through the Tokyo Games… the new iteration of this system has gone through various tests in the past years and has been in dynamic improvement… The US, China and Japan ranked top three on the Olympic Medal Count…This isn’t a coincidence. India’s delegation won only one gold and seven medals in total at Tokyo, reflecting there is still a long way ahead for the country to realize modernization.”[10]
India
In an op-ed for the liberal Hindustan Times, Manu Joseph, a journalist and award-winning novelist, gave a tongue in cheek appraisal of India’s lack of success in the Olympic games:
- “Forget the medals, we do not even qualify yet to host the Games. A consortium of private and public federations does not consider us good enough to let us waste billions of our own money on an event that some wise cities around the world do not wish upon themselves… the Olympic message for Indians is that we do not need the Games to feel low. The Games are only a reflection of the prevailing world order, and our inferiority is certainly not quadrennial.”[11]
In an op-ed for the conservative The Pioneer, Prafull Goradia, a former member of the Indian upper house Rajya Sabha, proposes that local governments should provide more support for equal participation in sports:
- “Except for a few privileged families, sport has not been regarded as integral to Indian society… Governments seldom took any interest and most sports bodies were treated by their members as little political arenas for self-promotion. As a result, regional representation was more important than players’ potential.… Odisha Government deserves hearty congratulations for patronising hockey… If other States could choose other games a la Odisha, it would be a great national service.”[12]
Russia
In an op-ed for independent newspaper The Moscow Times, Vitaly Gorokhov, a lecturer in the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in St. Petersburg, sees a successful “rally around the flag” effect despite the restrictions of Russian participation in the Olympics due to the recent doping scandal:
- “Russian media praise the ingenuity of officials for working around the ban and the heroism of their athletes triumphing in the face of adversity… U.S. athletes who complain about Russian doping are depicted as sore losers… Russia is not alone in treating the Olympics as a platform for displays of national pride and unity. Nationalism has been hard-wired into the Olympics since its foundation… The International Olympic Committee needs the backing of large countries to fund the ever-more-expensive Games, and if nationalism is needed to win their support, so be it.”[13]
[1] https://www.risingpowersinitiative.org/publication/rising-powers-quick-takes-on-the-tokyo-olympics/
[2] https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-closing-ceremony-coronavirus-pandemic-2d67aa2775d4ba9716eedd432968ef91
[3] https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-health-japan-coronavirus-pandemic-6c88df67b31b7fbfe983c046d9f9441f
[4] https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1423982290296721411
[5] https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-entertainment-lifestyle-japan-olympic-team-a26c75d0bac84f0b6408b29c96354d2f
[6] https://apnews.com/article/europe-russia-2020-tokyo-olympics-olympic-games-sports-43f0a3ed1efe8dbad68070875ad66e4c
[7] https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14413071
[8] https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Japan-s-Suga-faces-more-than-one-post-Olympics-curse
[9] https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3144305/despite-pandemic-world-can-be-proud-these-olympic-games
[10] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230899.shtml
[11] https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/india-should-not-even-try-to-host-the-olympics/story-pvAQCI2QJaK3WyIvFMqTlO.html
[12] https://www.dailypioneer.com/2021/columnists/india-at-the-olympics-over-the-decades.html
[13] https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/08/02/is-russia-cementing-an-olympic-win-a74669
