SIXTH DAY

The Japanese capital’s futuristic first Games in 1964 set a dazzlingly high bar it will struggle to reach next
year
ロボットと復興：東京2020大会は1964年の東京オリンピックを上回れるか
by Sean Ingle in Tokyo
There is a simple riposte to anyone who doubts an Olympics can truly transform a city: Tokyo. When
Japan’s capital first won the right to host the Games, in 1959, it suffered from a desperate shortage of
housing and functional infrastructure – and the lack of flush toilets meant most waste had to be vacuumed
daily out of cesspits underneath buildings by “honey wagon” trucks. But within five years Japan’s capital
had undergone such a metamorphosis that visitors to the 1964 Olympics responded with stunned awe.
“Out of the jungle of concrete mixers, mud and timber that has been Tokyo for years, the city has emerged,
as from a chrysalis, to stand glitteringly ready for the Olympics,” the Times’ correspondent swooned, citing
a long list of buildings and accomplishments “all blurring into a neon haze … that will convince the new
arrival he has come upon a mirage.”
But Tokyo’s makeover was real. There were 100km of freshly laid highways, a new sewage system, new
luxury hotels and 21km of monorail from the new international airport to downtown. Meanwhile, the new
Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train blasted to Kyoto and back at world-record speed, and startlingly modernist
arenas such as the Tokyo metropolitan gymnasium, which was shaped like a flying saucer, only added to
the futuristic wonderland vibe. There were also technological innovations. Computers were used for the
first time at an Olympics, along with timing devices that could separate competitors to one-hundredth of a
second. And the Syncom III satellite, combined with cutting-edge Japanese technology, enabled live TV
pictures to be beamed across the globe – another first. No wonder it was hailed as the “science fiction”
Olympics. Tokyo 1964 was, according to David Goldblatt in his excellent book The Games, “the single
greatest act of collective reimagining in Japan’s postwar history”. And there was a clear message for the
wider world too, reflected in the choice of Yoshinori Sakai, born in Hiroshima on the day the atomic bomb
was dropped on the city, to light the Olympic flame. The 19-year-old athlete was not only a symbol of his
country’s rebirth following the second world war – but also its hope for a brighter future.
Such was the event’s success that it has set the bar dazzlingly high for Tokyo 2020. Every Olympian
knows, after all, that while winning a gold medal is a formidable task, repeating the trick years later is
tougher still. On the 24th floor of the Harumi Triton Y building, organisers finalising plans for next year’s
Olympics and Paralympics says the world will see the “most innovative” Games in history.
Not everyone, to put it mildly, is as upbeat.
‘At that point blood drained out of his face’
Shortly after Japan won the right to host the 2020 Games, the country’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, toured
the Queen Elizabeth Park in Stratford, London, with Sebastian Coe, who had steered the hugely successful
2012 Olympics. There was only one thing on Abe’s mind: money.
“The only question he kept asking was: ‘How much was that? How much was that?’” Lord Coe recalls. “He
loved the velodrome, which he thought was a beautiful building architecturally. I also explained the
difficulties we had with the Olympic Stadium because we couldn’t get football engaged and he said: ‘Oh
yeah, I get that.’

“Then he pointed at the Aquatics Centre and said: ‘And that one?’ I told him that was the most expensive
and that Zaha Hadid had designed it. At that point blood drained out of his face and he said: ‘She’s done
our new Olympic stadium.’”
By 2015 Hadid’s plans for the stadium, which had spiralled to £1.3bn, had been cancelled – and a new
design by Kengo Kuma, blending steel and layers of latticed larch wood and intended to “restore the link
that Tokyo lost with nature”, chosen instead. But while it is hundreds of millions of pounds cheaper, the
Olympics and Paralympics remain a money pit. Last year Japanese government auditors predicted the
Games would cost around £19.5bn – close to four times more than originally forecast in 2013.
To make matters worse, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda,
was forced to step down in March following corruption revelations about the bid, first revealed by the
Guardian in 2016. Tokyo might be about to throw the greatest sporting party of them all. But, some of its
residents ask, at what cost?
‘It is important to showcase our robot technology’
So what will Japan get for its investment next summer, aside from eight shiny new arenas?
In their office in Tokyo’s bay area, organisers stress that the Olympics and Paralympics will be “a catalyst
for social change” – particularly by improving attitudes and facilities towards disabled people and opening
up the country more. That makes sense. Japan remains the world’s third largest economy, but that position
is in jeopardy due to a growing shortage of workers and an ageing population.
Another key aim for Tokyo 2020 is for it to be the “recovery and reconstruction Games”, following
the Tohoku disaster in 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami led to over 10,000 deaths and a meltdown
at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. “Baseball and softball matches will be held in the disaster-affected
areas,” says Masa Takaya, spokesman for the Tokyo 2020 organisers, “and restore vitality through the
power of sport.”
But these Games will be more about hearts and minds than bricks and mortar. “Tokyo 2020 is focusing
more on the softer legacy,” says Takaya. “Of course we have a similar spirit as 1964 by leaving new
sporting facilities. But we are even more keen to leave an intangible legacy for future generations, who will
have a first-hand experience of the Games with a massive number of people with different backgrounds,
religions and languages coming together in one place.”
Some of the 1964 playbook will be dusted off, with Japan keen to show it still leads the world in tech.
Toyota not only plans to showcase its driverless cars at the Games but has also designed robots for the
new Olympic stadium that, among other things, can take – and then bring – food and drinks orders to
wheelchair spectators.
Panasonic, meanwhile, has created motor-assisted power suits to allow people to carry heavy luggage with
ease. And Aruze Gaming’s Arisa – a sharply dressed six-foot robot that can show passengers the way to
toilets and lockers, offer directions and recommend tourist attractions, in Japanese, English, Chinese and
Korean – was trialled at two metro stations earlier this year.
“We are still discussing what sort of other robots can we use for the Games operations,” says Takaya. “It is
important to showcase our robot technology.”
‘Tourists might enjoy it … but for citizens it will be hellish’
It certainly sounds appetising enough. But in a coffee shop near Yoyogi Park, Misako Ichimura and Kumiko
Suto of the Hangorin no Kai (No Olympics 2020) activist group, paint a much bleaker picture of the Games’
impact.
Among their many concerns, they claim that the construction of the new national stadium, along with other
“upgrading” projects, has led to homeless people in areas like Shibuya and Shinjuku being forcibly
removed from parks and streets. They also express dismay that nearly 300 residents were evicted from 10
public housing projects near the stadium to make way for luxury buildings.
“Many of these people were elderly residents living alone, and around 10 passed away just before or soon
after their cruel removal from their homes,” says Ichimura. “Public housing is being destroyed in favour of
high-end housing, but no new projects are going up to offset these displaced people. To make matters
worse, the government has also pushed the homeless tent communities out of Meiji Park.”
Activists also have concerns about health and safety at construction sites that were backed up by The Dark
Side of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, a recent report by the global trade union federation Building
and Wood Workers’ International. It documents how low pay, overwork and poor access to grievance
procedures have created a “culture of fear” among construction workers – and says some workers have
been required to work up to 28 days in a row on Olympic projects.
There are unwelcome echoes of the past here. Before Tokyo 1964, safety standards were so low that “that
there were more than 100 deaths and 2,000 injuries on Olympic-related projects”, according to Goldblatt,
while the beggars and vagrants who made their homes in Ueno Park were also swept aside.
Meanwhile, Ichimura says many residents are dreading next summer. “Schools and other events are being
cancelled or having altered schedules,” she says, “and the already difficult summertime transportation will
be much more crowded and hot. Tourists might enjoy a happy and fun experience but for citizens it will be
hellish.”
Not all criticism of the Games comes from leftwing social activists. Makoto Yokohari, a professor at the
department of urban engineering at the University of Tokyo, says that while he agrees that the Games
needs to promote soft legacies, he hasn’t seen any sign of them yet.

“The Olympics may merely be a snapshot event which may become like an illusion within a couple of
years,” he says. His criticisms carry weight given he serves on the urban planning and sustainability panel
as a part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics Organising Committee. “I’m afraid my thoughts are
shared by most members,” he says.
Meanwhile, the respected architect Hiroshi Ota has another criticism: Tokyo 2020 is not daring enough
compared to 1964, when buildings such as Kenzo Tange’s Yoyogi gym were immediately seen as design
masterpieces. As the Times put it at the time: “The arenas have approached new heights of architectural
imagination and efficiency. In the the press room journalists look over blankly over their typewriters at each
other. They still feel stunned as they try to pay tribute.”
That, says Ota, will not be happening in 2020. “I am not optimistic,” he says. “Most of the design for the
new venues were chosen in closed competition and, more generally, I really think Tokyo has missed the
chance to include people in urban planning and regeneration.”
There is, however, one thing on which everyone agrees: the potential for Tokyo to be unbearably hot next
summer. The city’s governor, Yuriko Koike, concedes it is the one thing that keeps her up at night, saying:
“Obviously climate change is a global issue, and it needs to be tackled globally, but the possibility of
extreme temperatures in 2020 is a concern for me.”
Her fears are well-founded. Last year Japan suffered from a month-long heatwave that saw
temperatures peak at 41.1C – the highest ever recorded in the country – and caused the deaths of 138
people. However, Koike says the city has put in place a series of measures that will ensure the Games are
bearable for athletes and spectators.
“We are introducing heat-blocking road surfaces that can reduce the temperature of the road by eight
degrees,” she says. “This is being installed in more than 100km in the city centre and this covers the
marathon course. We have also have low-tech responses that have existed since the Edo period [1603-
1868], such as water sprays.”
Lord Coe is better placed than most to understand the journey cities go through after winning an Olympic
bid.
“There have been some challenges which I think Tokyo 2020 would be the first to admit,” he says. “There
is permanently a dynamic of stress and tension in the build-up to a Games, and always four or five car
crashes along the way.”
“The first big crunch comes with costs – because you always find stuff that you can’t possibly know when
making a bid. Then you end up in that odd period where everything that is going wrong in the country is
down to the Olympic Games. Yet eventually the excitement will start to build, especially when you start
talking about torch relays and volunteers and things that engage the public.”
Slowly these wheels are starting to turn. Last month nearly 5 million Japanese registered with the official
ticketing site, more than double the initial target. And Koike insists she sees parallels with the London 2012
Games, where a modest build-up gave way to an outpouring of sustained joy and exhilaration for both the
Olympics and the Paralympics.
Tokyo 2020 may have suffered so far from the same vaguely underwhelming feeling that Japan itself has
laboured under since the nation’s firework-like rise after the second world war. Yet come next July, Koike
and millions of others will be watching a torchbearer climb the steps of the Olympic Stadium during the
opening ceremony of the XXXII Olympiad – hoping that out of the darkness of the Tokyo sky comes raging
and sustained illumination.
Guardian Cities is live in Tokyo for a special week of in-depth reporting. Share your experiences of the city
in the comments below, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #GuardianTokyo, or via email to
[email protected]
From bears to hippos: the expert guide to surviving killer beasts
Former soldier and explorer Levison Wood runs through how to endure or avoid confrontation with some of
nature’s most dangerous animalsWhen Andi Bauer, a German student hiking in Romania, was attacked by
a bear, his girlfriend Lara Booth yelled “punch it in the eye!” (Lara is British, obviously). He did, the bear
stopped attacking and Andi was helicoptered to hospital where rods were screwed into his broken leg. He
survived, but was punching back the right thing to do? “If you’re being mauled by a bear, you’ve got to do
what you’ve got to do, to escape and survive,” says Levison Wood. A former soldier, explorer and writer
(his book for kids, Incredible Journeys, is published this week), Wood once had an encounter in a car park
in Yosemite when a bear smashed into the adjacent empty car to get food. “We woke up and made a lot of
noise, as bears do try to avoid humans. But each animal is different; you’ve got to know your stuff.” Here’s
his guide to fighting off some of nature’s most-feared beasts.
Crocodiles
Wood knows some stuff about crocodiles, having avoided them while walking the length of the Nile. And
that is his advice: avoid them. “If you go to get water at a place where animals drink, there might be
crocodiles there that have been waiting there for days and you might be done for,” he says. “Be a bit
clever: go to a less obvious place for water, where they wouldn’t wait for prey.”
Hippos
One of the biggest killers in Africa, because they are so fast and very territorial. What should you do? “Run
as fast as you can, try to get on to some high ground.” When Wood was chased by a hippo, he scrambled
up a hill. “They’re not good with hills, thankfully.”
Snakes
Make noise, says Wood, and they will avoid you. Unless it is a fer-de-lance, or bothrops asper, a nasty pit
viper found in Central and South America. “They’re the only snake to go out of their way to come after you;
they’re very territorial.” On a trip in the Panamanian jungle, one went for Wood’s guide, who was, luckily,
wearing baggy tracksuit bottoms so the snake’s fangs didn’t get into his flesh.
Big cats
These will often come at you from behind, says Wood. You could do what they do in parts of Bangladesh,
“where the local workers wear masks on the back of their heads, to stop leopards and tigers attacking
them.”
Sharks
One of Wood’s biggest fears, thanks to his grandfather who made him watch Jaws when he was about 10.
He has heard that you are supposed to punch them on the nose. “But I’m not sure what state of mind you
have to be in to literally get it on the nose.”
In general
Stay calm, act rationally, stick to trails and don’t wander off on your own, as you are much less likely to be
attacked if there are more than one of you, he says. Respect the environment you are in. “Most of the
animals we’ve spoken about are critically endangered. While the fear is bred into us, remember that they’re
the ones that are endangered, we generally come off better than they do.” Yes, Bauer is OK. But what
about the poor bear wandering the Carpathian mountains with a sore head?
Leonardo masterpiece 'being kept on Saudi prince's yacht'
Report of Salvator Mundi’s whereabouts confirms trend for great artworks to be displayed aboard
billionaires’ superyachts
The world’s most expensive artwork – Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Salvator Mundi – has reportedly
been installed on Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s superyacht.
The location of the painting has been a mystery since it was sold for a record $450m (£350m) at auction by
Christie’s in New York in 2017. On Monday, Artnet, an art industry news service, reported that the 500-
year-old painting was being kept on Prince Mohammed’s €500m (£440m) 134m yacht, Serene.
Artnet said “two principals involved in the transaction” had told its reporter that “the work was whisked away
in the middle of the night on MBS’s plane and relocated to his yacht, the Serene”.
The Salvator Mundi (Latin for Saviour of the World), which has been at the centre of a storm of controversy
over suggestions that it was painted by one of Leonardo’s assistants and not the man himself, had been
due to go on display at a Middle East outpost of Paris’s Louvre gallery last September.
“Having spent so long undiscovered, this masterpiece is now our gift to the world,” Mohamed Khalifa al-
Mubarak, the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s department of culture and tourism, said in June 2018. “We look
forward to welcoming people from near and far to witness its beauty.”
However, just week’s before the scheduled unveiling on 18 September, the opening was postponed and
has not been rescheduled.
The Saudi embassies in London and Washington did not respond to requests for comment on the
painting’s whereabouts. A spokeswoman for Christie’s did not comment on the location of the painting or its
provenance.
Earlier this month, one of the world’s leading experts on Leonardo criticised Christie’s for wrongly
suggesting in its cataloguing of the Salvator Mundi that she was among scholars who had attributed the
picture to the Renaissance master. Dr Carmen Bambach, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York, told the Guardian: “That is not representative of my opinion.”
The identity of the buyer remained a secret following the auction until the New York Times disclosed that
that it had been bought by a little-known member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin
Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud. He is a close friend of Prince Mohammed and after the auction was
named the country’s first minister of culture.
MarineTraffic, an app that tracks vessels including superyachts, shows that Serene is currently at Port
Said, an Egyptian city where the the Suez Canal meets the Mediterranean Sea.
The Guardian has previously reported on the growing trend for billionaires installing world-renowned
masterpieces on their superyachts. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the owner of Manchester City
and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has several hundred pieces aboard his £350m
superyacht, Topaz.
A reporter looking in the windows of Joe Lewis’s £200m superyacht, Aviva, when it moored on the Thames
last year, discovered that Francis Bacon’s Triptych 1974–1977 was hanging in gold frames on the lower
deck. The painting, whose subject is the death of Bacon’s lover George Dyer, was included in Tate Britain’s
blockbuster Bacon and Freud exhibition last summer.
The British-born Lewis, who has an estimated £3.9bn fortune, owns a majority stake in Tottenham football
club and lives in the tax-friendly Bahamas, has what he describes as “one of the largest private art
collections in the world”. It includes paintings by Degas, Freud, Klimt, Modigliani, Matisse and Picasso, and
sculptures by Moore, Degas and Di Modica. It is not known which are kept on his yacht.