Japan is moving forward with its big Olympic bet

Last Friday, in a shotgun marriage between the growing number of Covid-19 infections and the imminent delivery of the Olympics, the Japanese government extended its state of emergency for Tokyo and other regions until the end of the month. .

Under the expanded decree, companies will operate under confusingly designed restrictions and the languid vaccination program it will continue to frustrate a nation eager to work and mix safely. Citizens of the world’s most populous city will be asked not to make “unnecessary” trips beyond their homes. For a government and a people that invites the world’s athletes to run, jump and sweat in Tokyo in less than 11 weeks, there are many things that depend on that word.

Since the pandemic occurred last year, the Japanese government has in many ways left the question of what is “unnecessary” in the interpretation of people and the private sector. In the most terrifying first days of the crisis, he correctly (and successfully) trusted that the most severe reading would be applied, creating a quick connection to work-from-home policies and clear definitions between, for example, buying food. and the purchase of hats. .

These lines have been blurred since then. The government’s current efforts involve an attempt to reaffirm the old interpretation in the hope that this reduces infection numbers long enough to regain Japan’s reputation for having the disease under control. If you’re lucky, this can happen before tens of thousands of athletes and their teams get started in immigration.

The problem – and possibly one of the reasons why the new state of emergency is not working as well as its predecessors – paradoxically lies in the preparations for the Olympic Games. The determination to move forward comes with the implication that these games, and all the contortions needed to get them through safely, fall unambiguously into what is “necessary”.

The public, accustomed to the daily admonition of street speakers, must agonize over whether a picnic or a trip to the bookstore is strictly necessary. It seems that the government did not have as much difficulty in defining simultaneous dressage, surfing and ping-pong tournaments as vital activities. Everyone, regardless of their enthusiasm for the event, can see problems in this.

Three very related ones stand out. The first is that by insisting on the need to hold the Olympics in a pandemic, Japan relies heavily on the idea that its role as host has its duty and its destiny. This idea, powerful in the right hands, was brilliantly exploited by advertising giant Dentsu to convince Japanese companies to break away from $ 3.1 billion Olympic sponsorship cash. But public reserves of enthusiasm are low after a year of being pushed by an invisible demon.

Could a charismatic Japanese leader convince the population, 97% of whom are not yet vaccinated, that it is their duty to absorb the risks of the event, rather than that of a supranational organization like the International Olympic Committee?

Could they convince hundreds of doctors and nurses that their skills are best implemented to serve the games instead of the general public? Maybe, but it would take a lot of sales and sales that Yoshihide Suga, the prime minister, seems able or willing to meet.

The second issue is that the government risks creating a credibility deficit that could persist long after the torch has passed and the political priority is to complete the vaccination of the world’s oldest population again. This pandemic direction has forced leaders everywhere to make exceptionally difficult triage decisions. The Japanese leaders risk spending the next few months and years trying to convince voters that, in any case, they were always more important than water polo and pole vaulting.

But the third and perhaps most demoralizing problem of treating games as something necessary is for them to become this: a task without joy instead of the growing festival of achievements, ambitions, and coexistence that the Olympics can have. The language of the preparations, with its solemn commitments to safety, the high probability of no live spectators, and the heavy limitations of athletes visiting one of the most exciting cities in the world, feels compelled from any explanation of how it will all be nice.

Beyond the fierce organizational difficulties, the decision to hold the games at this time makes a startling demand for the patience, courage and public spirit of Tokyo and Japan. Without a clear commitment to fun — and the fact that all of this happens precisely because humanity thrives on the unnecessary — demand can be excessive.

leo.lewis@ft.com