The preparation of the Tokyo 2020 Games: Completing the Waterfront Subcenter Plan

Abstract

This paper shows how the bids for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016 and 2020 were built on the completion of the Waterfront Sucenter plan from the 1980s. Using a method of analyzing geographical data available on Internet databases, and comparing it with documents produced by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for the Tokyo harbor, the Olympic urban project appears to be dependent on preexisting patterns of the bids. This paper highlights the importance of deconstructing the narrative of the Tokyo Olympic project by analyzing urban strategies and their dependence on choices made several decades earlier.

Keywords:

• Olympic Games
• Tokyo
• Tokyo Bay
• Urbanism
• waterfront

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by FFJ/CDC. The author gratefully acknowledges the generous support and assistance of Fondation France-Japon (FFJ) de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC).