Japanese taxpayers were shut out from Olympic venues. Now they can view the staggering bill.
TOKYO — A day after the Tokyo Olympics concluded, social media posts in Japan showed photos and videos of a man believed to be Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee’s president, strolling through Ginza, a popular shopping district in…
Aug 15 21August 15, 2021
Article at Washington Post
North Korea threatens to boost nuclear program ahead of drills between U.S. and ‘perfidious’ South
SEOUL — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Tuesday that Pyongyang could move to bolster its nuclear and conventional weapons program in response to a major joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea…
Aug 10 21August 10, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Olympic magic cut through the pandemic gloom, but the Tokyo Games’ legacy is complex
TOKYO — The flame that burned throughout one of history’s most controversial Games was extinguished Sunday as Japan brought the curtain down on the Tokyo Olympics with Closing Ceremonies that were as unusual as the event itself. Most of the athletes…
Aug 08 21August 08, 2021
Article at Washington Post
A golden farewell to swimming’s greatest underwater dancing queen
TOKYO — As Tokyo Aquatics Centre emptied Saturday after its last event of the Olympic Games, the strains of Abba’s “Dancing Queen” played over the sound system. It was a fitting tribute to the greatest underwater dancing queen, Russian artistic…
Aug 07 21August 07, 2021
Article at Washington Post
British diver Tom Daley says sports has ‘a lot further to go’ on LGBTQ acceptance
TOKYO — British diver Tom Daley says he is proud to be able to inspire other people as an openly gay athlete, but he is quick to add that global sports still has a long way to go to achieve acceptance and embrace diversity. At least 182 openly LGBTQ…
Aug 07 21August 07, 2021
Article at Washington Post
An Okinawa native wins gold in karate, making history for his sport and its birthplace
TOKYO — Roughly eight centuries ago, a new martial art called karate came into being on a subtropical island now known as Okinawa. On Friday, an Okinawan won the first Olympic gold medal in men’s kata, one of the modern sport’s premier events. “I’m…
Aug 06 21August 06, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Tokyo logs record coronavirus cases, as government struggles to contain spread
TOKYO — Japan’s capital logged a record number of coronavirus cases this week, burdening the hospital system amid a slow vaccine rollout, an increasingly apathetic public and the government’s unsuccessful efforts to restrict the rapid spread of the…
Aug 06 21August 06, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Belarus Olympic officials stripped of accreditation, sent home
TOKYO — Two Belarusian Olympic officials accused of attempting to force sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya to return home early from the Tokyo Games have been stripped of their accreditation and will be leaving Japan, organizers said on Friday. The…
Aug 06 21August 06, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Buoyed by rising nationalism, China’s keyboard warriors take aim at Olympic athletes
After the Japanese table tennis team mounted an upset against the Chinese in the mixed doubles Olympic final, they found themselves facing a barrage of online hate. Even before the competitors took to the podium, death threats and messages to “go to…
Aug 05 21August 05, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Belarus Olympian reaches Poland for asylum bid after fearful refusal to return home
MOSCOW — Belarusian Olympic runner Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arrived Wednesday in Poland to seek asylum after refusing to return to her homeland amid fears of reprisals from the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko as it wages sweeping crackdowns…
Aug 04 21August 04, 2021
Article at Washington Post
As athletes open up on mental health, Japan’s Olympians tell harrowing tales
TOKYO — Japanese gymnast Mai Murakami broke down in tears Thursday when asked about hateful comments directed against her online for participating in an Olympics that many people in this country didn’t want to happen. “I know there are people who are…
Jul 31 21July 31, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Virtual cheers, recorded sounds, videoconferencing: How Olympians and fans are ‘connecting’
TOKYO — DJ Daisuke Kikyo jumped in the air, pumped his fists and blasted hits such as “La Bamba,” “YMCA” and “Call Me Maybe” to hype up the mood at the beach volleyball match held at Tokyo’s Shiokaze Park on Thursday. The video screen instructed fans…
Jul 30 21July 30, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Tokyo reports new record for coronavirus infections, but the Games’ bubble holds
TOKYO — In the months leading up to the Olympic Games, the citizens of Tokyo became extremely worried about the possibility of tens of thousands of foreigners coming in and infecting them with the coronavirus. Their concerns may have been…
Jul 27 21July 27, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Japan manages a forced smile at its lonely Opening Ceremonies, but Olympic joy is in short supply
TOKYO — For a moment at the start of Friday’s Opening Ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics, members of a crowd gathered outside National Stadium gasped as fireworks lit up the sky and reflected off the glass front of a nearby building. But the gasps soon…
Jul 23 21July 23, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Naomi Osaka lights the Olympic cauldron
TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympics officially began Friday with the Opening Ceremonies, a four-hour extravaganza of flag-waving, parades, music, lights and cultural celebration that culminates with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. TOKYO — Before she…
Jul 23 21July 23, 2021
Article at Washington Post
Firing over Holocaust joke latest scandal exposing Japan’s elite, critics say
TOKYO — Another ouster of a person involved in staging the Tokyo Olympics — this one over an antisemitic joke more than two decades ago — is the latest incident in which the Games have exposed uncomfortable truths in a country where many feel…
Jul 22 21July 22, 2021
Article at Washington Post
In Japan, sponsors seek to distance themselves from Olympics ahead of Opening Ceremonies
TOKYO — With the Olympics mired in controversy and criticism just two days before the Opening Ceremonies, big business here has started to distance itself from the event. Following the lead of Toyota, Japan’s biggest business associations and some of…
Jul 21 21July 21, 2021
Article at Washington Post
In Tokyo, nerves are frayed and critics are loud, but the Olympics plow forward
“We had doubts every day,” Bach said Tuesday. “We deliberated and discussed. There were sleepless nights. Like everyone else in the world, we did not know — I did not know — what the future would hold.” If Bach indeed had sleepless nights in the…
Jul 20 21July 20, 2021
Article at Washington Post
South Korea’s Moon scraps Olympic visit after diplomat’s ‘unacceptable’ remark
TOKYO — South Korean President Moon Jae-in has scrapped a planned visit to Tokyo for the Olympics and to meet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, his office said on Monday, shortly after lodging a protest over "unacceptable" remarks by a Japanese…
Jul 19 21July 19, 2021
Article at Washington Post
A troubled sequel: Tokyo’s bid to remake classic 1964 Olympics set to disappoint
TOKYO — When Tokyo staged the Olympics in 1964, the Games marked Japan’s reemergence from the ashes of defeat in World War II and symbolized its readmission in the post-war international order. It was a moment of immense national pride. The Games…
Jul 17 21July 17, 2021
Article at Washington Post