Japanese Olympic Dream: Embarking On A Journey Of Urban Renewal

On September 1, 1923, Tokyo and Japan’s second-most populous city Yokohama were hit by the Great Kantō earthquake, leaving around 140,000 people dead or missing. About 45% of urban area in the capital city was devastated by the tremor and widespread fires that followed.

Fifteen years later, in March 1945, vast parts of Tokyo were devastated once again – this time by the incendiary bombing of American B-29 bombers. During 1923, the government could focus all its recovery effort on the capital, but this time nearly all of the country’s major cities lay in ruins. Half of Tokyo, 58% of Yokohama, 40% of Nagoya and 99% of Toyama were burnt to the ground.

In 1964, less than two decades after World War II, a pro-growth coalition of government and private developers embarked on a building frenzy, with the construction of 10,000 new office and residential buildings, ranging from four to seven stories, 100 km (62 miles) of new superhighways along vital arteries from Haneda International Airport, a $55m (£42m) monorail from the airport into downtown Tokyo, 40 km (25 miles) of new subway lines, four new five-star hotels, and a billion-dollar bullet train (Shinkansen) that would halve the existing travel time between Tokyo and Osaka.

Even the earthquake served as a golden opportunity to rebuild a truly modern Tokyo. Despite a severely-curtailed budget and resistance from local residents, the six-year reconstruction project successfully modernised the central part of Tokyo. Similarly, urban planners learned that large urban green spaces served as an important firebreak and as temporary shelters for those who had lost their homes.

A rational street system with sidewalks was established, as well as modern bridges, small town squares, fire-proof schools, public housing and three prominent public parks – all in places where little open space had previously existed. Like in all Olympic Games since 1894, the slogan of the 1964 Games was ‘faster, higher, stronger,’ which also became a major slogan for the Japanese government as it strove for Tokyo to be a faster, higher and stronger city.

Around the 1964 Olympics, an ambitious plan to rebuild Tokyo was made as part of a remedy for lack of green space and a modern, comprehensive infrastructure system. For example, 10% of the urban areas were to be allocated to parks, and 100-metre wide boulevards with extensive promenades and linear parks would subdivide the city in clusters of 300,000 residents each. The Tokyo 1964 Games completely transformed Japan.

Five decades after the 1964 Olympics, Japan won the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. The Tokyo 2020 Games Vision states, “Sport has the power to change the world and our future. The Tokyo 2020 Games will bring positive reform to the world.”

Leveraging the occasion of Tokyo 2020 Games, aim to harness this togetherness to bring about further enhancements to Tokyo, Japan and the world.

Japan is hosting summer Olympics for the second time at a time when it faces mounting criticism about the Games’ cost, pandemic and negative impacts but it will have a lasting legacy. Even the International Olympic Committee was eager to show that how mature cities can hold the event with minimal disruption. Tokyo’s bid in 2013 pitched a “compact” Games, in which the main venues would be kept within 8 km kilometres of the Olympic Village.

Tokyo’s unprecedented urban transformation in the lead-up to 1964 provided a roadmap for rising cities like Seoul and Beijing, Olympic hosts in 1988 and 2008 respectively, that sought out the Games for economic benefits and an introduction to the world stage.

If 1964 Summer Olympics showcased how the sun can shine over Japan despite disaster, World War, then the 2020 Olympics will lead to massive urban renewal of a matured city like Tokyo and a hope for rest of the world how an Olympic dream shapes urbanisation.