All things about the media, marketing, business, Japan and other musings by Mike in Tokyo Rogers.
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Monday, July 18, 2011
Olympics! Sex! Scandals! Bribery! Geishas and Sushi! Burning Books and Nazis! This Post Has it All!
Oh no! Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara wants to try again for the Olympics to come to Tokyo. We just got lucky and "lost" our last bid a few years ago. Not again! Tokyo is already way too crowded as it is. We don't need the Olympics.
EDDIE MURPHY AND RICK JAMES - PARTY ALL THE TIME
Now, though, I bet Tokyo has a good chance to get the Olympics because of the March 11, disaster because people feel sorry for us.
Please world! Have mercy on us! Don't put the Olympics in Tokyo, send them to someplace really needy... How about Las Vegas? Or Chicago? Or even Compton!
Most people don't know this, but the last time Japan hosted an Olympics, the taxpayers had to foot a $6 billion dollar shortfall. Sounds like fun to me! I'll tell you more about that but first up, Tokyo's Olympic Bid!
Tokyo formally announced its bid to host the 2020 Olympics as a symbol of Japan's determination to recover from the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) president Tsunekazu Takeda on Saturday said that his executive committee had approved Tokyo's bid at a special meeting earlier in the day after the capital failed to capture the 2016 Games.
"Japan must recover from the great earthquake disaster," he told a reception in Tokyo marking the 100th anniversary of the JOC which was attended by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.
"We wish to make the 2020 Olympics a symbol of our recovery."
Tokyo's outspoken governor, Shintaro Ishihara, said as he proposed a toast at the reception: "There is no meaning in fighting a battle that is the Olympic bidding if we don't win it."
"Tokyo won't mind fighting a bloody battle in building facilities. I want the JOC to win a bloody battle (in leading the bid) no matter what."
He also added, "What the heck do I care if we spend tons of taxpayers money? As long as it's not my money, then who cares?" Nah. He didn't actually say that, but I'll bet he thought it.
In 2009, Tokyo lost to Rio de Janeiro in the race to host the 2016 Games, along with Madrid and Chicago.
Hey, isn't this Ishihara Shintaro the same guy who told us that, right after the earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku, we weren't supposed to drink and celebrate spring and party? Now, he wants us to spend lavishly on the Olympics to impress his friends? Hmmm?
Seriously, I'd much rather drink with friends and celebrate life. Tokyo is way too crowded as it is. We don't need the Olympics.
Anyway, didn't Nagano lose a ton of money by hosting the 1998 Winter Olympics? Wasn't it filled with scandals? Why yes it was. It was $6 billion in debt. Who paid for that? The Japanese tax-payer, of course!
After the games, Nagano was more than $6 billion in debt. The expensive luge and bobsled course was largely unused. One of hockey rink was made into a swimming pool. Other venues had a hard time just coming up with money to cover their maintenance fees.
Yeah. There's a bunch of facilities sitting there unused. Great way to spend the public's money! $6 billion? How much money is that? That's a 6 with 11 zeros and one decimal point behind it.
That's $6,000,000,000.00 dollars in debt!
But there's a lot more fun and games where that came from too!:
Nagano Olympics, Scandals and Money
The Nagano Olympic Committee was accused of being involved in some shady activities. It reportedly took a $200,000 kickback from a Sumitomo Heavy Industries in return for a construction contract. There was also an investigation of a mysterious deposit of $230,000 into the account of Italian Olympic committee member who inexplicably voted for Nagano instead of Valle d'Aoasta in his own country.
Simple clerical errors, I'm sure.
"I'm shocked. Shocked. I tell you!"
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, one of the richest men in the world in the 1980s, had a personal dream of bringing the Olympics to Nagano, which was his home town and contains a number of hotels and ski resorts owned by him. According to one report met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Antonio Samarach in a Tokyo hotel and offered him $20 million to finance his pet project an Olympic museum, in return for help to bring the games to Nagano.
When the IOC visited Nagano, members were given first class plane tickets and welcomed with sushi feasts, geishas and luxurious hot baths. The bill alone for Samarach’s two week stay in Nagano was $80,000. The Nagano committee not only spent lavishly in Nagano they spent just as much and sent a 1,000-member team in 1991 to Birmingham, where the voting for 1998 games took place.
Olympic Paaaaaaarty in town! Woo-hoo! How many ho's in da house? Say Yeah! Yeaaaaaaaah!
Don't let this happen to you!
On the eve of the voting, all the I.O.C. members were invited to a huge estate outside Birmingham for a banquet of sushi, piled on little miniature boats, and prepared by one of Britain’s most famous sushi chefs. The Nagano committee says it spent $18 million on its bid, other estimated the true figure was around $65 million.
So, what's yer point?
When the Nagano Olympic committee was asked to produce documents relating to the scandals and a $28 million deficit, the committee said the 90 volumes of carefully-maintained accounting books had mysterious disappeared. What happened to the books remained a mystery until 1999, when the Salt Lake City Olympic scandal broke, and Nagano committee vice secretary-general Sumikazu Yamaguchi admitted, "I ordered them burned. I didn't want the I.O.C. members to feel uncomfortable." One reason why the Salt Lake City Olympic committee engaged in corrupt practices to get the Olympics for 2002 is because it felt it lost an earlier bid to Nagano because Nagano spent more money and gave more expensive gifts to IOC members than it did.
Cool! Burning books too? Wow! These Olympics had it all! Scandals, corruption, bribery, wild parties, hot baths, decadence, sex, Geishas, sushi, miniature boats and now burning books and even Mormons from Salt Lake City!? Supreme! With a great line up of activities like this, we can even invite some high-ranking Nazi's to the festivities! Now wouldn't that make it fashionable?
Wow! Think about it! Just make sure we have lots of hot babes, Japanese and foreign, some SS Nazi officers and this would make a great Hollywood movie script!!!!
Gee. On second thought, this Olympics idea-business sounds like a real exercise in, er, "honesty and fair play."
I change my mind. I'm all for it! What do you think?
The myth that the Olympics/World Cup/etc. gives the area hosting it an economic boost is...a myth. There are always a few well-connected companies and perhaps very specific industries that benefit, but the rest are shafted.
I feel sorry for all those South African vendors who got kicked out of the area during the WC.
The ruling party bosses and their gangster pals always find a way to enrich themselves by foisting money losing boondoggles like the Olympics on the people. The Olympic spirit: jingoism, graft, bribery, cheating and even murder.
We really don't need Olympic in Tokyo. Mr. Ishihara will clean up the "play area" just to pretend to be a healthy city.
He killed Kabuki-chou by that. Kabuki-chou has become just a place for Chinese tourists. Kawaguchi city mayer in Saitama prefecture, who is a friend of Mr. Ishihara, killed Nishi-Kawaguchi in the same way. Now nobody goes there and even local papa-mama shops also died.
Comments must be succinct & relevant to the story. Comments are checked frequently and abusive, rude or profane comments will be deleted. I’m just one of many bloggers who answer questions online and sometimes for the press. I usually handle questions about Japan, marketing or the economy, so in those areas I’m more likely to make sense and less likely to say something really stupid. If I post something here that you find helpful or interesting, that’s wonderful. This is my personal blog. If you don't like what you have read here then, just like when you go into a restaurant or bar that allows smoking, if you don't like it, there's something at the front that has hinges on it and it is called a "door."
The myth that the Olympics/World Cup/etc. gives the area hosting it an economic boost is...a myth. There are always a few well-connected companies and perhaps very specific industries that benefit, but the rest are shafted.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for all those South African vendors who got kicked out of the area during the WC.
The ruling party bosses and their gangster pals always find a way to enrich themselves by foisting money losing boondoggles like the Olympics on the people. The Olympic spirit: jingoism, graft, bribery, cheating and even murder.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/dec/11/mexico
The Olympic Games truly are a tribute to government.
We really don't need Olympic in Tokyo. Mr. Ishihara will clean up the "play area" just to pretend to be a healthy city.
ReplyDeleteHe killed Kabuki-chou by that. Kabuki-chou has become just a place for Chinese tourists. Kawaguchi city mayer in Saitama prefecture, who is a friend of Mr. Ishihara, killed Nishi-Kawaguchi in the same way. Now nobody goes there and even local papa-mama shops also died.
Let's start a "No Olympics in Tokyo" Movement!
ReplyDelete