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The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are nearly four years away, but already Japan has suffered huge embarrassments...
Taro Toporific wrote:
Tokyo urged to stop using cheap timber in centrepiece Olympic stadium
Reuters | May 10, 2017
---A village leader from Borneo urged Japan on Wednesday to stop building its Olympic stadium with cheap timber that he says is obliterating traditional life for his indigenous people.
Bilong Oyoi, whose Penan people live in Borneo's Malaysian rainforests, handed a petition of 140,000 signatures to Tokyo's embassy in Bern, Switzerland, demanding it halt use of deforestation-linked tropical timber in its Olympic venues.
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Japan's government has said the wooden design was chosen over competing proposals due to its fast construction time and sensitivity to the environment.
matsuki wrote:Japan's government has said the wooden design was chosen over competing proposals due to its fast construction time and sensitivity to the environment.
Taro Toporific wrote:Sixty-eight percent of Japan is forests, most which most are vastly underused and mismanaged...But oh no, the 2020 brainiacs need to import lumber, sheesh.
legion wrote:Taro Toporific wrote:Sixty-eight percent of Japan is forests, most which most are vastly underused and mismanaged...But oh no, the 2020 brainiacs need to import lumber, sheesh.
Yeah, just a fucking moment, I thought the whole point of using wood was to begin the process of returning Japan to its historical diverse woodland.As I understand it there used to be much greater diversity and a lot more deciduous.
A flame from the 1964 Tokyo Olympic torch that was supposed to be kept alight eternally actually went out four years ago, red-faced officials confessed on Monday.
The flame, housed in a sports training facility in the southwestern Japanese city of Kagoshima, has been touted as a “sacred Olympic flame” since 1964 and received widespread media coverage when Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Games.
But it turns out the flame went out in November 2013, two months after Tokyo won the Games, and was hastily re-lit, according to the then head of the facility.
“At that time, I could not say something that could destroy (people’s) dreams,” added the official, who declined to be named.
“I saw with my eyes that the flame went out on Nov. 21,” he added. “We re-lit the fire and kept it going for about two weeks, but I thought that was not good.”
At that time, there was considerable media interest in the flame as Japan had just been awarded the 2020 Games, he said.
“In addition, we kept receiving a number of requests from various people to use the ‘sacred flame’ for town festivals and weddings. I decided to come clean,” he said.
Local Kagoshima official Mitsuru Horinouchi also said the flame was extinguished for good in November 2013.
The facility now keeps a different flame — ignited by a magnifying glass and sunlight in December 2013 — at a camp site.
“We now have a display panel explaining the that existing flame was created after the flame from the 1964 Olympics went out,” the current head of the facility Etsuko Tabata told AFP.
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Tsukiji races to exterminate rat infestation before fish market relocation
The Japan Times | Oct, 28, 2017
As the Tokyo Metropolitan Government works with industry groups to finalize the date for relocating the famed Tsukiji fish market next year, it is also mulling how to exterminate the hordes of rats infesting the current location...
...the rodents at Tsukiji — mostly brown rats — will probably migrate to neighboring areas if eradication efforts fail, Yabe warned. Those rodents can easily reach the upscale Ginza district, located only a few minutes’ walk from the market, he said.
“They may roam in nearby areas for a while, possibly for a year or so,” and will only settle when they realize there is enough food to feed all of the newcomers, said Yabe, who is also the author of “Nezumi ni Osowareru Toshi” (“Cities Attacked by Rats”). “It could coincide with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when many foreign tourists are expected to visit Ginza.”
One of the biggest concerns is that growth of the rat population may usher in infectious diseases, including leptospirosis spread by rodent urine either through direct contact or contaminated soil or water, Yabe said.
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Taro Toporific wrote:One of the biggest concerns is that growth of the rat population may usher in infectious diseases, including leptospirosis spread by rodent urine either through direct contact or contaminated soil or water, Yabe said.
Taro Toporific wrote:Have you seen the new slogan on the new Tokyo taxis<snark>?
Over 110,000 volunteers needed for Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Paralympics
TOKYO
The Tokyo metropolitan government and the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games have announced that they will be calling for over 110,000 volunteers to assist in the Games, an increase of 30,000 from the initially anticipated number.
Details of volunteer positions will be unveiled in July and applications will begin in September, Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike said over the weekend, while actual face-to-face interviews with the applicants will be held from February 2019, Fuji TV reported.
Grumpy Gramps wrote:I'd gladly volunteer. If they'd volunteer to pay me a princely salary, I'd be open to offers, if they happen to need a dog-sitter or cowherd or something.
legion wrote:"START YOUR IMPOSSIBLE"
I suspect it was formulated after careful consideration of Adidas' "Impossible is nothing"
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