BUSINESS PARTNER
JAPAN’S 2020 OLYMPICS
Marking A Significant
REBIRTH FOR THE COUNTRY When historians assess the Abe era, they will use the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games as their benchmark. They will note that Abe’s grandfather Kishi Nobusuke championed Japan’s bid for the 1964 Games. They will highlight the decisions to use the 1964 stadium as the starting point for a new, futuristic arena and to renovate other existing facilities to illustrate the continuity between the two Games
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ost important, however, if Abe’s vision for Japan is realised, those future historians will point out that just as the 1964 Games showcased the country’s economic and political reemergence from the defeat of World War II, the 2020 Games marked a similar reemergence after two decades of economic stagnation.
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Throughout his second term in the prime minister’s office, no single event has weighed more heavily or glittered more brightly than the 2020 Games. The International Olympic Committee’s September 2013 decision to let Tokyo host the Games was both a validation and a “fourth arrow” in Abe’s quiver. He declared after Tokyo’s selection: “I want to make the Olympics a
