Japan through the lens of the Tokyo Olympics

The world is going to look towards Tokyo and Japan during the time of the Olympics in the summer of 2020. It is therefore the ideal time to publish a book ahead of the Games, situating the mega event within explanations of contemporary Japan, showing how the Olympics serve as catalyst for important issues in Japanese society. The book provides intelligent background information on the Olympics from multiple angles, showing the Olympics as a multifaceted event, deeply impacting society, politics, the economy, and public discourse already since several years ahead of the games.
The book offers multidisciplinary perspectives and is the product of ongoing research and extensive close communication among scholars from the fields of political science, sociology, economics, theater studies, history, anthropology, linguistics, and social geography.

The collection aims at the same time at the academic community (in Asian studies, social sciences, and sport studies), as well as at a broad, general readership, who are potential visitors to Japan in the lead up or during the Olympic games, and who look for an easy to read, yet intellectually stimulating account of numerous things surrounding the Olympic games that they could not read anywhere else than in this accumulation of articles.
The book will however also have a lasting impact and will not become obsolete after the Olympic games in Tokyo have wrapped up. The readers will receive many interesting aspects about the construction of the mega event, but also learn from the way the games were implemented, marketed, the reactions and response by the rest of the country, and how all this is historically embedded. Therefore the book provides a window onto Japan as a whole, not just the mega event itself. In addition, the book will also be of interest to students and colleagues within the diverse disciplines focusing on Japan, and can also serve as an alternative entry-level textbook to studying and teaching undergraduate students on Japan in sociology, anthropology, political science, and Japanese studies broadly.
The book will be available in paperback and open access by May 2020.

“Full of fascinating insights and information, it is sure to become a bible for anyone intending to attend (or even just watch) the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Definitely a winner.”
—Roger Goodman, University of Oxford

“Take this book along as you ride the trains and explore the city. It will be valuable long after the last medal has been awarded.”
—Patricia Steinhoff, University of Hawaii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Understanding Japan through the lens of Tokyo 2020
   Barbara Holthus, Isaac Gagné, Wolfram Manzenreiter, Franz Waldenberger
2. Olympics and the media
   Wolfram Manzenreiter
3. Skateboarding: “F*** the Olympics”
   Wolfram Manzenreiter
4. Political games
   Axel Klein
5. Number games: The economic impact of Tokyo 2020
   Franz Waldenberger
6. Climbing: New sport on the block
   Wolfram Manzenreiter
7. Advertising the Games: Sponsoring a new era
   Isaac Gagné
8. Karate: Bowing to the Olympics in style
   Wolfram Manzenreiter
9. Herculean efforts: What the construction of the Olympic Stadium reveals about working conditions in Japan
   Steffen Heinrich
10. Tokyo 2020 and neighborhood transformation: Reworking the entrepreneurial city
    Ralph Lützeler
11. Ho(s)t city: Tokyo’s fight against the summer heat
    Jan Lukas Kuhn
12. Tokyo’s architecture and urban structure: Change in an ever-changing city
    Florian Purkarthofer
13. Success story: The 1964 Tokyo Olympics
    Torsten Weber
14. San’ya 2020: From building to hosting the Tokyo Olympics
    Hanno Jentzsch
15. Baseball/softball: One more homer for Japan
    Wolfram Manzenreiter
16. Outdoor sports in the periphery: Far from the compact games
    Daniel Kremers
17. Surfing: Taken with a grain of salt
    Wolfram Manzenreiter
18. Tokyo’s 1940 “Phantom Olympics” in public memory: When Japan chose war over the Olympics
    Torsten Weber
19. Upgrading Tokyo’s linguistic infrastructure for the 2020 Games
    Peter Backhaus
20. Sexual minorities and the Olympics
    Maki Hirayama
21. The Paralympic Games: Enabling sports and empowering disability
    Katharina Heyer
22. Sex in the city
    Maki Hirayama
23. Games of Romance? Tokyo in search of love and Unity in Diversity
    Nora Kottmann
24. The 2020 Olympic mascot characters: Japan wants to make a difference
    Jan Lukas Kuhn
25. Olympic education: How Tokyo 2020 shapes body and mind in Japan
    Wolfram Manzenreiter
26. Sex in the Village
    Maki Hirayama
27. Volunteering Japan-style: “Field cast” for the Tokyo Olympics
    Barbara Holthus
28. The difference between zero and one: Voices from the Tokyo anti-Olympic movements
    Sonja Ganseforth
29. Beyond 2020: Post-Olympic pessimism in Japanese cinema
    Jan Lukas Kuhn
30. Tokyo 2020 from the regional sidelines
    Isaac Gagné
31. Olympic leverages: The struggle for sustainable food standards
    Sonja Ganseforth
32. Security for the Tokyo Olympics
    Sebastian Polak-Rottmann
33. The Olympic and Paralympic Games as a technology showcase
    Franz Waldenberger
34. Tokyo 2020: Connecting the past with the future
    Round table discussion with Munehiko Harada, John Horne, Wolfram Manzenreiter