Japan have struggled to escape their association with grief on a world stage; the most recent Fukshima Daiichi nuclear disaster behind them, the country was dealt the cruellest of timing, as a COVID wave swept through the nation just as the delayed Olympic Games began.
Naturally, it was difficult to remove that association with grief watching empty stadiums and arenas punctuate the silence of these games, particularly as other nations open up to fans and normality – seen most triumphantly at Euro 2020 and in the NBA playoffs in the US. Japan is still riding the storm of COVID in more ways than one, with only 20% of adults receiving a first vaccine dose, and an economy forecast by the IMF to grow much slower than the other G7 nations in 2021.
Those obstacles were compounded by national indifference and apathy that bordered on hostility, as residents grew frustrated at a lack of revenue flowing back following millions of dollars in investment, and the diversion of resources into a games that must have looked a world away from those envisioned when they were awarded to Tokyo in 2013.
Yet in their Olympic performance to date, there is triumph that could mark the beginning of a new age. Japan have made an excellent start to these Olympics, with 26 medals from 6 days of competition, and an expectation that the country will surpass its record haul of golds (16 achieved at Athens 2004 and Tokyo 1964) and total medals (41 at Rio 2016).
Like with every host nation, there was an expectation that these games would return dividends for Team Japan, but without the time shortening, record-busting drive of a home crowd, this could have become a social experiment that backfired on the hosts. That has not been the case; Japan have emphatically placed the weight of national pressure to one side, and carried the latent hopes of their country on their shoulders to propel to countless feats of glory, both expected and unexpected.
That was best captured in the fairytale story of the host nation’s triumph in women’s softball against Team USA. Returning for the first time since 2008, when underdogs Japan again defeated the USA, the absence of fans here was especially poignant, given softball and its sister game baseball have become Japan’s adopted national sport over time; three legendary Japanese baseballers carried the torch at Friday’s opening ceremony.
This side were led by their perfect pitcher Yukiko Ueno, the 38 year old who has guided this team in its multiple incarnations throughout the 21st century, and with five strikeouts against Team USA guided them back to an unexpected Gold medal. There was a disarming beauty to watching a game that had so often been propelled by crowds, now confined to the electricity created within the field by stolen bases and strikeouts.
It likely marked the end of Ueno’s Olympic Softball career – the sport will not return at Paris 2024 – and in doing so serves as a time capsule to Japan’s excellence across the games, delivered at a time in desperate need of memorable moments, and reminding a nation – even in the bleakest of times – why they should feel patriotic.
Yet there are stories like these dotted throughout Japan’s glorious Olympics, be it in Table Tennis doubles upset glory by Jun Mitzutani and Mima Ito to dispatch the titans of China, in turn securing the first non-Chinese Table Tennis gold since 2004; or in 13-year-old Mimiji Nishiya bringing home gold in the games’ first ever skateboarding event. There are surely more stories to come, with Japan likely to surpass their records within days, the remainder an added carnival of sporting excellence strong enough to surpass any negative associations from the beginning of the games.
Against odds much steeper than those some underdogs faced within their specialisms, this cohort of Japanese Olympians have already begun to induce a wave of excitement across Japan, even if it differs from the expectation of filled stadia roaring on hometown heroes. The world will move past COVID in its current form, but while we wait, the Tokyo Olympics, and Team Japan in particular, remind us of what we have to look forward to when we do.