Tokyo at the start line for 2020 Olympics
Nothing quite puts a city at the forefront of international public consciousness as being the chosen to host a Summer Olympic Games. Whether it’s reclaiming history (Athens), showing off new economic power (Beijing) or just plain showing off (Barcelona), it's a rare chance for an entire city to be the world’s focal point for weeks on end.
At a recent event to mark the centennial of Japan’s Olympic Committee, Tokyo governor, Shintaro Ishihara announced his intention to bid for the XXXII Olympiad in 2020, saying it would be a chance to reconstruct not only Tokyo, but also the devastated Tohoku region.
With visiting International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge on hand to accept the bid -- just days after he announced South Korea had won the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang -- talk of an Olympic torch relay down the Sanriku coast and soccer matches being played in the area were quick to surface.
“We believe the Olympics will help boost the recovery and reconstruction of Japan" said Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) president Tsunekazu Takeda at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Kan and the Japanese Emperor and Empress.
Bid lessons
Little is yet known of what kind of bid Tokyo will make, but the city can take hope from its neighbor’s success.
“Pyeongchang benefited from the fact that it bid three times and each time learned lessons from the past,” said Rogge, when faced with journalists at Tokyo’s Foreign Correspondents' Club.
- More on CNNGo: Spectacular Pyeongchang
He also quashed suggestions that cities in countries so geographically close couldn’t host back-to-back Games.
“There is a perception that there is an automatic rotation of continents but this is not the case --we go for quality, not continents,” said Rogge, citing Athens 2004 and Torino 2006 amongst examples.
If successful, a 2020 bid would lead to the second Olympics hosted in Tokyo, after a 1964 Games that also focused on reconstruction -- from World War II, in that case. The 1964 Games coincided with the launch of the first high-speed Shinkansen bullet train, showcasing Japan as a country on the cutting edge of technology.
Governor Ishihara believes "hosting the Olympics could be a milestone in rebuilding the nation into a better country than ever."
Aborted hosts
Tokyo has had several run-ins with the Summer Olympics in the past.
The city was set to host the 1940 Olympics, but in July 1938 it pulled out due to fears Japan’s conflict with China would lead to boycotts and protests.
The Games were handed to Helsinki but were eventually called off due to the war in Europe, Finland eventually hosted in 1952 and Tokyo became the first Asian host in 1964.
Then, in 1988, Nagoya was one of only two bids, losing out to Seoul.
- More on CNNGO: Japanese Olympian's fashion faux pas
For the 2016 Games, Tokyo pitched "the most compact and efficient Olympic Games ever," while also touting its effort to design a green Games to coexist in harmony with the environment.
The bid earned top ratings in the applicant phase, but was eliminated in the second round of bidding in October 2009, beating Chicago, but losing out to Madrid and eventual winner Rio de Janeiro.
That bid was said to have lost due to the lack of strong message and, perhaps more importantly, because Japan lacked strong personal connections in international sports circles.
Contingency plans
The earthquake and tsunami of March 11 also raises the question of whether a city with the potential for unforeseeable natural disasters is a desirable host -- and also if the IOC has contingency plans if a host is suddenly unable to fulfill its role should the worst happen.
“We have contingency plans for what is foreseeable,” says Rogge. “The difficulty is that we are defined by a timetable. If we look at the past, we had a major earthquake in Sichuan and this occurred shortly before the Games in Beijing. If it had happened 200 kilometers eastward it would have affected the Olympic Games.”
In fact, two Games have been moved in the past.
In 1908, when the Olympics was a much smaller affair, host Rome was denied the opportunity by an erupting Mount Vesuvius that forced the Italian government to shift the funds for the Games to rebuilding Naples. London stepped in to host for the first time.
Then in 1976, the people of Denver overturned the decision to host the Winter Games in a referendum after costs had spiraled.
The IOC frantically looked for another host, but the second choice of Whistler turned down the chance for the same reasons and Salt Lake City was also rejected by the IOC. Innsbruck eventually saved the day.
Despite the concerns though, the value of a 2020 bid is not lost on the governors of the worst earthquake-hit prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.
- More on CNNGo: India's Winter Olympians
According to the "Daily Yomiuri" newspaper, one governor was quoted as saying, "nine years from now, I want to show my prefecture has been rebuilt." Another stated, "I hope some competitions will take place in my prefecture."
Tokyo will be up against tough competition with Rome and Madrid in the running, but -- in the words of IOC president Rogge -- "I [saw] again the virtues of the Japanese people; the courage, the sense of duty, the sense of citizenship and the moral fortitude. With these virtues, Japan will overcome, as it has had to do in the past, a terrible crisis."
