{"id":36729,"date":"2017-06-01T15:28:46","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T18:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=36729"},"modified":"2017-06-01T15:28:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T18:28:46","slug":"tokyos-anti-olympics-movement-comes-to-rio-unifying-resistance-to-the-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=36729","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo’s Anti-Olympics Movement Comes to Rio: Unifying Resistance to the Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the Olympics<\/a>\u00a0are long gone in Rio, a\u00a0legacy<\/a>\u00a0remains of\u00a0incomplete infrastructure<\/a>, evicted residents’ struggle for fair compensation<\/a>, and the aftermath of displacement. The Games move on to increasing opposition in future host cities, both committed and prospective<\/a>, along with criticism in the media. The category of\u00a0Anti-Olympics activism has expanded with opposition groups seeing\u00a0the opportunity to team up with one another all around the world, with an international Anti-Olympics coalition growing over the past half-decade, with\u00a0contacts in Rio, Vancouver, Chicago, London, Sochi, Pyeongchang, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Boston, Barcelona, Paris and Tokyo. On May 29, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) hosted Misako Ichimura<\/a> of the Hangorin No Kai<\/a> \/ No to 2020 Tokyo Olympics movement to discuss anti-Olympics efforts in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Giselle Tanaka, representative of Rio’s\u00a0Popular Committee on the World Cup and Olympics<\/a>\u00a0and urban planning researcher at the Laboratory on Labor, Territory and Nature (ETTERN) at the Urban and Regional Planning Research Institute (IPPUR) at UFRJ, had previously visited Ichimura\u2019s organization in Tokyo. She began the event with a presentation of her reflections on the visit. Tanaka\u00a0explained that the movement in Tokyo \u201cbrings together different struggles\u201d with various motives for rejecting the Olympics. While some opposed the Olympics for the event itself, others were most concerned with the preservation of historic sites and architecture in Tokyo, while still other groups worried about the effects of gentrification and privatization of public space, or\u00a0the nationalism inherent in\u00a0the process. Tanaka explained that while in Japan, the Anti-Olympics movement merged all of these separate groups, whereas in Rio, \u201cwe focused a lot on the issue of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tanaka<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Tanaka, the Olympic model–replicating a set of international \u201cstandards\u201d\u00a0regardless of a region\u2019s \u201cspecific condition\u201d–is misguided. She described some of the most disruptive Olympic projects in Tokyo so far. This includes the National Stadium<\/a> in Meiji Park<\/a>, which is\u00a0expected to cause gentrification in the surrounding working-class neighborhood, and\u00a0has closed the park entirely (rather than the partial closure needed to construct the Olympic buildings), resulting in the removal of its homeless community. The demolition of the\u00a0Kasumigaoka Apartments<\/a>, due to intense pressure and forced removal of elderly residents, some of whom had already been evicted once for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, was also highlighted as an example of forced evictions for the Games. Given the similarity of the two cases, Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a> residents made a declaration\u00a0in support<\/a> of those resisting removal in the Kasumigoaka Apartments.<\/p>\n

Tanaka noted how environmental<\/a> justice issues had marked the preparation for the Olympics in Tokyo, just as they had in Rio. The government has planned to relocate the famous Tsujiki fish market<\/a>, but the proposed site contains contaminated soil. Similarly, Ichimura added that recovery from the nuclear disaster in Fukushima was ongoing, while Olympics preparations have caused the government to shift their stance on \u201csafe\u201d levels of radiation.<\/p>\n

\"Giselle<\/a>
\nBoth Tanaka and Ichimura\u2019s presentations highlighted that the promised post-Olympic benefits only reach a handful of people, and can actually harm the public good<\/a>. For example, while hosting the Games is thought to increase investment and tourism, this activity only takes place in the specific city or region where the Olympics are held. Furthermore, with high-tech facilities to maintain after the Olympics, government funds are directed away from important public programs and into Olympic infrastructure even once the Games have ended. Similarly, while homeless people were most affected by the removals in future Olympic sites, Ichimura noted that this change from \u201cpublic space into a completely private space\u201d is a loss for \u201call people, not only [the] homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ichimura\u2019s presentation went into detail about resistance in Tokyo. Living in a homeless community\u00a0as an artist at the time when many of the projects began, Ichimura began to organize with her Blue Tent Village<\/a>\u00a0community in Yoyogi Park. However, the Blue Tent Village\u00a0was eventually removed, and the homeless community has all but disappeared from the neighborhood, given that most of the previously public spaces are now construction sites. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to find a place to sleep,\u201d notes Ichimura. To elaborate on the theme of eviction, Ichimura recounted a story of an old woman who lived in the Kasumigaoka Apartments under the care of her daughter. The woman was sick and unable to move homes in her condition. She remained in the apartment in spite of the government\u2019s \u201cpushing\u201d and insistence that the Games were part of \u201ca national plan.\u201d However, as a noisy demolition began on a complex nearby, the woman passed away. It is felt\u00a0that the struggle to stay in her apartment was an important trigger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tanaka<\/a><\/p>\n

To conclude, Tanaka and Ichimura spoke with each other and answered audience questions. When asked about similarities and differences in the two cases, Tanaka explained that the Japanese government has strict rules that regulate\u00a0protests, while their protest police are unarmed. In contrast, Tanaka explains, while \u201cwe have more freedom to demonstrate\u00a0here [in Rio],\u201d the threat of police violence or retaliation is more intense.<\/p>\n

Ichimura is planning for the future–“our movement is very small, but we can connect with another movement,\u201d she affirmed. Activists hope that conversations like Monday\u2019s continue so global groups can share strategies for\u00a0how to combat and reduce the harm caused by the Olympic Games. As the world waits to hear which city will host 2024<\/a>, with Los Angeles and Paris\u00a0the only cities left in the running (all but Paris and Los Angeles have withdrawn their bids following public pressure), and Paris the only one without a visible protest movement<\/a>, more and more observers are\u00a0skeptical of the possibility\u00a0for a positive\u00a0physical imprint left by the brief event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the Olympics\u00a0are long gone in Rio, a\u00a0legacy\u00a0remains of\u00a0incomplete infrastructure, evicted residents’ struggle for fair compensation, and the aftermath of displacement. The Games move on to increasing opposition in future host cities, both committed and […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":36775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2315,1736,1333,1329],"tags":[190,756,2436,11,65,516,878,2437,1259,5,270,1402,2438],"writer":[2419],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-legacywatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-event-reports","10":"category-by-international-observers","11":"tag-comite-popular","12":"tag-community-organizing","13":"tag-environmental-justice","14":"tag-forced-evictions","15":"tag-gentrification","16":"tag-homeless","17":"tag-international-comparison","18":"tag-japan","19":"tag-mega-events","20":"tag-olympics","21":"tag-resistance","22":"tag-legacy","23":"tag-tokyo","24":"writer-raine-robichaud"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36729"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=36729"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=36729"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=36729"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=36729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}